Posted on 07/26/2002 10:11:26 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Mr. President, thank you! Thank you for respecting the conscience of American taxpayers. Thank you for withholding $34 million from the United Nations Population Fund. The acronym of this agency (UNFPA) does not match the words of its title, and even less does the rhetoric of its leaders match the reality of its actions.
I do not know, Mr. President, what arguments you may have gotten about your decision, but I do need to warn you that you will get even more very soon, as the next UN assault on the conscience of American taxpayers comes to the fore in the U. S. Senate.
In 1985, Congress, in response to the demand of conscientious citizens, enacted PL 99-88, which includes the Kemp-Kasten Amendment. Kemp-Kasten states that no U. S. funds will go to any organization or program that supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.
The UNFPA not only supports and manages the Chinese program of involuntary abortion, it is the world's cheerleader for it. And because the Kemp-Kasten Amendment is the law of the land, Mr. President, you were able to invoke existing U. S. law and defend the conscience of American citizens to say no to funding involuntary abortion overseas.
Sven Burmester, UNFPA representative in Beijing, told the Chicago Tribune two years ago that in his view "there is a generation of Chinese who sacrificed themselves for the benefit of society and they should be recognized for that."
Sven views the "sacrifice" of the people of China as something noble, that the world should emulate. Would he regard it as equally "noble" if Black women in, say, South Africa, were being compelled to make it? Suppose it were Moslem women in India who were being forcibly aborted? Or Turkish immigrant women in France?
Somehow, I am sure Sven would have a different view of involuntary population control if it were those populations being affected. In the context of the UN, it is politically correct to forcibly abort some people but not others.
The Kemp-Kasten Amendment, however, does not view forced abortion or involuntary sterilization any different in China or Peru or South Africa or India or anywhere else. The standard of this law is very clearly objective: coercion is coercion, and American taxpayers don't fund it.
As you said it yourself, Mr. President, "I said we're not going to use taxpayers' money to fund abortion, and I'm going to make sure we're not using taxpayers' money to fund abortion."
And when Congress passes a law, you can enforce it. And you did.
But you may not be able to enforce a law passed by Congress if the UN gets its way on something else. Which brings me, Mr. President, to CEDAW.
The U. N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (this UN acronym doesn't match its name, either) is coming soon in the U. S. Senate.
Across the ocean, CEDAW has been invoked by the European Parliament to demand that certain countries change their laws restricting access to abortion. You see, abortion is considered a "fundamental right" under CEDAW. That means nations that have signed on to CEDAW can no longer honor the conscience of their citizens. They simply lost the right to represent their own citizens.
If CEDAW becomes the law of the land, then the Kemp-Kasten Amendment might be found to be in violation of CEDAW (along with any number of other things you have supported or signed!).
That's a big "if". It will never come to that, Mr. President, if you make it very clear very soon that the United States is not going to be a part of CEDAW.
It never ends: just when you think you have put one fire out, another starts somewhere else. In fighting this fire, you are protecting not just the freedom of conscience of American taxpayers on this one, but the American system of self-government as well.
We're counting on you again, Mr. President. Make it clear, and make it soon.
(Connie Marshner is Director of the Center for Conservative Governance at the Free Congress Foundation.)
Free Congress Foundation
No Truth In Labeling: The UN's CEDAW Convention
Source:CNSNews.com; Published: June 21, 2002;
Author: Wendy WrightRe-making the world: Thomas Jipping warns of radical, dangerous implications of CEDAW
Author: Thomas JippingDENMARK TOLD TO CHANGE LAWS BY CEDAW COMMITTEE, RAISING FEARS IN US
Source: Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute;
Published: June 21, 2002; Author: Austin Ruse, C-FamSenate Committee Considers UN 'Women's Rights' Treaty (CEDAW)
Source: CNSNews.com; Published: June 13, 2002;
Author: Jeff JohnsonSenate LEFT Pushes Intrusive U.N. Treaty (CEDAW)
Source: NewsMax.com; Published: June 6th, 2002; Author: Wes VernonThe UN opposes Mother's Day! Tell the Senate to REJECT the UN's CEDAW!
Source: http://conservativehq.com ACTION ALERT; Published: May 10, 2002
It has wonderful Feminist-propoganda-enforcing provisions as this: (c) The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women at all levels and in all forms of education by encouraging coeducation and other types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programmes and the adaptation of teaching methods;
Ah, yes, "revision of textbooks" ... Political Correctness for the World!!!
Article 5. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures: (a) To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women;
Ah, yes, let's engage the World in Behavior Modification! Let's abolish all traditional values!!!
(d) The right to equal remuneration, including benefits, and to equal treatment in respect of work of equal value, as well as equality of treatment in the evaluation of the quality of work;
N.O.W. gets to enforce their nutty "equal pay" doctrine and overrides the free market and free functioning of the economy, forcing employers to bear costs of this.. ... and enforcing this Feminist Carte Blanche is an unaccountable and unelected tribunal of feminist UN bureaucrats, who make sure than any country opposing abortion-on-demand, supporting traditional family roles, or allowing the free market to determine the employment prospects for men and women will be in big heap doodoo with the CEDAW StarChamber.
I think the shabby treatment of would-be 'sovereign' nations like Ireland and Mexico (and Slovenia and the 'mthoer's day' incident) only proves the danger of these Global Govt-inspired UN "treaties"
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