<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">--- On <B>Thu, 4/30/09, Austin Ruse <I><austin.ruse@c-fam.org></I></B> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid">From: Austin Ruse <austin.ruse@c-fam.org><BR>Subject: Clinton Announces U.S. Global Push for Abortion<BR>To: arthurkelly@yahoo.com<BR>Date: Thursday, April 30, 2009, 4:53 PM<BR><BR>
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<P class=c4><STRONG><SPAN class=c1>Friday Fax</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN class=c2><BR></SPAN><SPAN class=c3>April 30, 2009 | Volume 12, Number 20</SPAN></DIV></TD></TR>
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<TD class=c5 align=left>Dear Colleague,<BR>
<DIV>We report today on Hillary Clinton’s announcement last week in Congress that the US government will begin a global push for a right to abortion. She also linked family planning with abortion, a clear violation of the Cairo Program for Action. <BR> <BR>We also report today on the Senate hearings of Harold Koh to be the top legal adviser at the US State Department. With him in this position, you can count on greater US engagement in the radical global agenda for abortion and homosexual rights.<BR><BR>We chose these two “American” stories because of the impact these two individuals will have all over the world.</DIV>
<DIV>Spread the word. </DIV>
<DIV>Yours sincerely, </DIV>
<DIV>Austin Ruse <BR>President </DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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<H3>Obama/Clinton Position on Family<BR>Planning and Abortion Violates<BR>Cairo Agreement</H3>
<DIV>By Samantha Singson </DIV>
<DIV> (NEW YORK – C-FAM) Last week at a United States (US) House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that there was a new administration in place with different values, beliefs and global agenda. Nothing illustrated this rupture with previous US policy more than her admission that the Obama administration interprets the term “reproductive health” to include abortion. </DIV>
<DIV> In response to a question from Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ) on whether her definition of the phrases “reproductive health,” “reproductive services,” and “reproductive rights” includes abortion, Secretary Clinton stated that, “We [the current US administration] happen to think that family planning is an important part of women’s health and reproductive health includes access to abortion that I believe should be safe, legal and rare.” </DIV>
<DIV> Clinton’s linkage of family planning with abortion is not just a severe break with the previous administration; it is a clear violation of the Cairo Program for Action, which her husband’s government helped to negotiate in 1994. The Cairo document explicitly states in two places that abortion should in no case “be promoted as a method of family planning.”</DIV>
<DIV>Secretary Clinton’s statement of the current administration’s position is in stark contrast to previous US policy. Over the last eight years at the United Nations (UN), the US delegation made dozens of interventions underscoring that there is no international consensus on abortion. Up until the week prior to Barack Obama’s election, the US delegation at the UN stated that “sexual and reproductive health does not include abortion or constitute support, endorsement, or promotion of abortion or the use of abortifacients” and that “none of these references can be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement, for promotion of abortion.”</DIV>
<DIV> At the UN, nations regularly engage in heated debates over “reproductive health” language. When the term was introduced at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, states only agreed to its inclusion in the non-binding outcome document with the understanding that it could not be used to create any new right to abortion. More than 13 states also made explicit reservations to ensure that none of the terms related to reproductive health would be defined to include abortion.</DIV>
<DIV> To date, no international consensus on the precise meaning of the term “reproductive health” exists. At the Commission for Population and Development meeting earlier this month, several countries made explanations of position reiterating that there is no international consensus on the term “reproductive health” and that abortion should not be included as part of its definition.</DIV>
<DIV> The term “reproductive health” is currently the focus of legislation in a number of countries like the Philippines and contained in various declarations and proposals at the Organization of American States, the African Union and the UN. As the Philippines’ Constitution explicitly protects unborn life, its usage in national legislation excludes any abortion linkage.</DIV>
<DIV> For years, pro-life UN lobbyists have urged countries to issue strong interpretive statements to protect their laws on abortion.</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD>
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<H3>Transnational Supporter of Abortion<BR>Advances to Top U.S. Legal Job</H3>
<DIV>By Austin Ruse </DIV>
<DIV> (WASHINGTON, DC – C-FAM) It was clear from the opening moments of the Senate hearings for the proposed new top legal advisor at the United States (US) State Department that widespread criticism of the nominee had struck a nerve. Rather than a love feast for a liberal hero, the committee seemed to be, in the words of one observer, in a “defensive crouch.”</DIV>
<DIV> Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry immediately denied charges that former Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh wants to subordinate the US Constitution to foreign legal sources. To chuckles all around, Kerry said to Koh, “And you don’t want to do away with Mother’s Day, do you?” This referred to criticism from social conservatives that Koh supports US ratification of a United Nations (UN) treaty whose monitoring committee criticized Mother’s Day as promoting a negative cultural stereotype.</DIV>
<DIV> With the exception of a few Republicans, each member of the Committee felt it necessary to rebut criticism of Koh that has been building in the conservative media and blogosphere. </DIV>
<DIV> In his voluminous writings, Koh has vigorously supported a legal theory known as “transnationalism.” This theory holds that federal judges and Supreme Court justices should use foreign legal sources like European Court of Human Rights opinions to interpret the US Constitution and determine US law. In the hearing, Koh distanced himself from his own writings, saying he was only interested in “knowing” foreign law and mocked those who felt that American lawyers should not “know” foreign law. </DIV>
<DIV> A broad-ranging “sovereignty coalition” has formed in opposition to the Koh nomination, and a letter from the coalition to the Senate is expected any day. The group represents a broad range of center-right concerns over national security, economic, social, foreign, and constitutional policy.</DIV>
<DIV> Troubling to social conservatives is Koh’s support of UN regimes forming -- and sometimes coercing – the social policy of sovereign states. Koh, for instance, supports US ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Koh seems unaware or indifferent to the threat posed by the UN committee that monitors CEDAW compliance. In 2002 testimony before the Senate, Koh testified that CEDAW was “abortion neutral,” when in fact the CEDAW committee had read abortion into the treaty through its “health” provisions. Moreover, he seemed at that time to be unaware or indifferent to the CEDAW committee directing states parties that they had to legalize abortion. </DIV>
<DIV> In written testimony provided to the committee, Koh denied there was a customary international legal norm on the death penalty. Given that there is greater international uniformity on the death penalty than on abortion, it would follow that Koh would also deny such a norm exists for abortion. However, given the way that Koh dodged and weaved before the committee and at times seemed to deny his own writings, one cannot be sure he would follow his own logic. </DIV>
<DIV> It is expected Koh will be voted out of committee but that there will be a floor fight over his confirmation. </DIV>
<DIV align=center>For more news visit us at:<BR><SPAN class=c19><SPAN class=c18><A href="http://www.elabs3.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=ebss,108dl,4t6x,63ar,sk0,39g0,2wwk" target=_blank rel=nofollow>www.c-fam.org</A><A rel=nofollow><BR></A></SPAN></SPAN></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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<DIV class=c14><IMG height=106 alt="Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute" src="http://www.c-fam.org/imgLib/20080710_CFAMLOGOOOO.jpg" width=350 border=0> </DIV>
<DIV class=c20><SPAN class=c19><SPAN class=c18><SPAN class=c17><SPAN class=c16><SPAN class=c15>Editor in Chief - Austin Ruse<BR>Managing Editor - Piero Tozzi<BR>Assistant Managing Editor - Hannah Russo<BR>Chief Correspondent - Samantha Singson<BR>Contributors - Susan Yoshihara / Katharina Rothweiler</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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