Barack Obama Would Restore Funds to UN Group Involved in Forced Abortions

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 30, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Barack Obama Would Restore Funds to UN Group Involved in Forced Abortions

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 30
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Barack Obama supports federal funding for abortions and opposes funding crisis pregnancy centers or abstinence education programs, but his campaign also confirms he supports funding a group that is involved in forced abortions. The UNFPA would receive taxpayer funds under an Obama administration.

That’s despite research confirming the UNFPA’s participation in the China family planning program that prohibits families in the Asian nation from having more than one child.

The coercive policy also includes forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and has seen Chinese population control officials remove offenders from their jobs, harass family members and required forced labor or imprisonment for those violating the policy.

Chinese officials have also gone as far as jailing Chen Guangcheng for more than three years because the attorney spoke with American media outlets about a violent forced abortion campaign in his city.

President Bush has revoked funding for the UNFPA every year during his administration for violating a U.S. law prohibiting sending public funds to groups that promote forced abortions.

But the Obama campaign, in an October 2007 response to a survey from the pro-abortion RH Reality Check web site, confirmed the presidential candidate would restore funding to the controversial group.

"If elected president, would Sen. Obama, overturn the Global Gag Rule or reinstate funding for UNFPA," the web site asked.

"Yes, Senator Obama would overturn the global gag rule and reinstate funding for UNFPA," Obama’s campaign responded.

The second part of the Obama camp’s answer also confirms that Obama would restore taxpayer funding for foreign abortions.

The so-called global gag rule is a derogatory term abortion advocates use to refer to the Mexico City Policy, first instituted by President Reagan and restored by President Bush after President Clinton reversed the policy during his administration.

The policy prohibits forcing taxpayers to fund groups that perform abortions in other nations or "gags" them by prohibiting the funding of groups that lobby pro-life nations in places like South America or Africa that have pro-life laws on abortion to overturn them.

In the same RH Reality Check questionnaire, the Obama campaign confirmed he won’t support pregnancy centers with funding but will fund hundreds of thousands of abortions annually with taxpayer monies.

"Does Sen. Obama support continuing federal funding for crisis pregnancy centers? Why or why not?" the web site asked.

The Obama campaign’s lone response? "No."

Asked if Obama supports the current law prohibiting taxpayer-funding of abortion, known as the Hyde amendment, the Obama campaign replied: "Obama does not support the Hyde amendment."

Senator John McCain has repeatedly voted against taxpayer funding of abortions in numerous situations.

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