House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing Reveals More Chinese Human Rights Abuses
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), conducted a hearing yesterday to discuss Chinese human rights abuses brought into the international spotlight by activist Chen Guangcheng. Committee members and testifying activists spoke with Chen for the second time in recent weeks via telephone through translator and friend, Pastor Bob Fu. This time, Chen [...]
U.S. House Foreign Ops Bill Would Reinstate Mexico City Policy and Defund UNFPA
The House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations subcommittee released its FY 2013 appropriations bill making serious cuts to international organizations that perform or promote abortion. President Obama rescinded the Mexico City policy shortly after taking office which allowed funds allocated for reproductive health to flow to groups like International Planned Parenthood and others. The Obama [...]
“Help my family and I leave safely.”
Question: If Chen is out of Clinton’s sight, will he be out of mind? Did Obama throw Chen Guangcheng under the bus? The blind attorney who exposed China’s brutal forced abortion program left the U.S. embassy for a hospital to treat an injury incurred during his escape from house imprisonment. Left alone by State Department [...]
Aiming at China, Blind Lawyer Forces U.S. to Deal with Forced Abortions
One man is forcing Hillary Clinton to pay attention to abuses against women. The woman who famously said in Beijing in 1995 “women’s rights are human rights” has been excruciatingly silent since she’s come into power about one of the worst abuses against women. Mrs. Clinton’s first trip to China as U.S. Secretary of State [...]
Sovereignty in Action: Beating Back Beaurocratic Inertia at the UN
Sovereignty is a word that isn’t used within the UN superstructure, its bureaucracies, thousands of documents, reports and resolutions and frankly even UN member states. The UN system always tries to work towards achieving consensus, and to merely mention that each and every individual state has a the power and sovereign prerogative to undo consensus [...]
“Obama Wars” Over Contraception Move to U.N. Front, and the Administration Loses a Battle
The annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meeting broke up today after failing to reach consensus on “agreed conclusions” – a very rare occurrence. The impasse was due to the insistence by the United States delegation on changing language regarding “family planning” that had been agreed upon and in continuous use since [...]
State Dept Delegation to UN Women Commission Stacked With Abortion Advocates
Yesterday a State Department press release announced the delegation they would be sending to the the 56th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women beginning next week at UN headquarters in New York and running two weeks. The two co-leaders of the delegation are Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations and Melanne Verveer, [...]
Obama Contraception Mandate Compromise Called an “Accounting Gimmick”
Today the Obama administration announced a compromise they hoped would end the firestorm created by the HHS decision to mandate contraception coverage through the new healthcare law. The exemption to religious institutions was far too narrow and would require Catholic hospitals, universities and other religious affiliated organizations to provide at no cost contraception, the morning [...]
Russia Ignores State Dept Warnings: Moves Forward with Passing Gay Propaganda Bill
St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city is one step away from passing what LGBT activists call an “anti-gay” bill. Yesterday it passed its second of three required approvals to become law. The third reading is all but a formality. The bill prohibits “public activities promoting homosexuality.” The bill’s author United Russia deputy Vitaly Milonov defends the propaganda bill [...]
2011: The year the LGBT agenda was officially adopted as US Foreign Policy by the US Department of State
OR: “The year the LGBTI lobby officially redefined Human Rights internationally” Here are the facts: March 22, 2011 – The United States co-chair’s a meeting of like minded countries that submit a statement titled “Ending Acts of Violence and Related Human Rights Violations Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity” at the United Nations Human [...]
Nigerians fight to uphold marriage under Obama’s pressure
The Catholic Medical Association of Nigeria (CMAN) congratulated that country’s Senate for defending marriage in law, but it condemned what it called the “coordinated ferocity” of foreign governments, NGOs, and international organizations which pressured the Senate not to pass the bill. CMAN called this interference “forces of neo-colonialism, imperialism, and secular humanism.” The bill, which [...]
“Pesky Issue of National Sovereignty” in the way of Green Climate Fund (GCF)
Larry Bell writes in Forbes about “More U.N. Insanity Paid For By U.S. Taxpayers”. He claims UN officials want to achieve “global governance” through an international tax system. An underlying position paper theme those top U.N. bosses grappled with was how to cope with the pesky issue of national sovereignty that interferes with their global [...]
Sec. Clinton to International Family Planning Conference: “U.S. commitment and involvement in this issue is of paramount importance”
In a letter addressing family planning advocates at the 2011 International Conference on Family Planning in Dakar, Senegal, Secretary Clinton emphasized the timely importance of providing reproductive care around the globe. She pledged the commitment of the United States in helping women access what she feels is a “basic right” – “information and means to [...]
Funding for Family Planning/Population Control to Poor Countries Increases Under Obama
The Obama Administration has substantially increased foreign aid assistance for population control/family planning activities since 2008. The initial budget proposal coming from the state department for the FY 2012 Foreign Appropriations bill requested $760 million for family planning, $300 million above 2008 levels. The State foreign affairs and operations budget which funds family planning and [...]
Are LGBT People Human?
The US Ambassador to the UN seems to think not. Speaking to a LGBT Pride Month reception at the US State Dept., Amb. Rice said that “for the first time in history” the UN adopted a resolution “dedicated to advancing the basic and fundamental human rights of LGBT persons.” If this is really true, then [...]
Kenyan OB/GYN Confirms Destructive Power of US Population and Development Programs
This is testimony from a doctor working on the ground that needs to be read by everyone working in the international population and development field. Here is a sampling: Population Control – The Kenyan Perspective By Dr. Stephen K. Karanja, M.B.CH.B.M.MED O/G – Consultant Obstetrician/Gynaecologist The first birth control clinic was opened in Nairobi, the [...]
US State Department Living Up To Standard to Make Homosexual Advocacy #1 Priority
What is the biggest issue for the United States in foreign affairs? It’s not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as evidenced by the quiet resignation of special envoy George Mitchell, which was a reflection of the utter failure of the US to achieve any substantive progress in peace talks. It’s not the Arab revolutions spreading across north [...]
For Better or Worse, U.S. Soft Power
In an interview with FrontLines, Lt. Gen. John R. Allen (who President Barack Obama nominated last month to take Gen. David Petraeus’ place as commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan) told the reporter: There are adversaries in the CENTCOM region who understand and respect American hard power, but they genuinely fear [...]
More on Funding & Family Planning
As my colleague Amanda Pawloski pointed out in her previous post, the US will continue to fund UNFPA for FY 2011. During last week’s Commission on Population and Development (in which UNFPA figures prominently), the US delegation took time at an NGO consultation to reassure the audience that funding to UNFPA would be safe from [...]
State Dept. and USAID: What’s Really First For Maternal Health?
Today, Sec. Clinton delivered a brief speech at the launch of the Global Partnership on Maternal and Child Health, where she mentioned that we have to step away from traditional methods of improving maternal health, and innovate to save lives quickly. Yet, Sec. Clinton’s first solutions – skilled birth attendants and tech to resuscitate newborns [...]