By Dave Andrusko
The Department of Health and Human Services has officially decided to withhold funding from an upcoming June conference which features a number of speakers from pro-abortion organizations and the "fiercely anti-Bush Moveon.Org." Sponsored by the Global Health Council, the June 1-June 4 conference on global health and reproductive rights "will likely promote policies contrary to the president's," according to the publication, The Hill.
Among the presenters at "Youth and Health: Generation on the Edge" are advocates from such abortion-promoting organizations as the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the United Nations International Family Planning Fund (UNFPA) as well as the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI).
AGI is the "special research affiliate" of Planned Parenthood. The Hill reported that on the first day of the conference there would be "a two-hour reception showcasing the Alan Guttmacher Institute's latest research."
That same day, there will be a five-hour meeting "to address the issue of unsafe abortions." As explained in a multi-part series in National Right to Life News, this is a vaguely defined, unscientifically arrived at notion that is used to attack protective abortion laws on the grounds that such laws are "causing" unsafe illegal abortions. In 2002 the Bush Administration declared UNFPA ineligible to receive government population control funding. At the time of the announcement, NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson said, "The UNFPA is a cheerleader and facilitator for China's birth-quota program, which relies heavily on coerced abortion." Johnson added, "Top UNFPA officials have been completely cozy with China's birth-quota bosses. For 20 years, top UNFPA leaders have consistently praised China's program and attacked its critics."
IPPF refused to sign President Bush's Mexico City Policy. The policy requires that in order to be eligible under the U.S. program of aid to overseas population-control programs, private organizations must agree not to perform abortions (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest), and not to "actively promote abortion as a method of family planning" - - for example, by campaigning to weaken or repeal the pro-life laws of foreign nations.
Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) told Family News in Focus, "We have specific laws that have passed multiple times under multiple presidents that say family-planning organizations that promote abortion, particularly when they promote abortion as their lead policy . . . cannot receive federal funding."
According to The Hill, prior to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decision, the conference was "being paid for in large part" by the United States Agency for International Development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration. The latter two are divisions of HHS.
Two of the conference's most prominent speakers are Dr. Thorya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the UNFPA, and Doortje Braeken, senior adviser for adolescents and youth at the IPPF.
HHS spokesman Bill Pierce told the Washington Times, "After careful review, we determined that we were not going to fund this conference due to concerns we had about federal funds being used for lobby purposes." Taxpayer funds may not be used to lobby the government. That there might be improper lobbying became clear in two ways.
First, one day of the conference, titled "Advocacy Day," is "devoted to participants in the conference going to Capitol Hill to lobby Senate and congressional offices," according to the Times.
Second, James M. Sherry, vice president of Global Health Council, told the Washington Post that MoveOn.org, which has spent millions on anti-Bush ads, had been asked to "speak about using technology to organize grassroots groups."