Activist Groups Say Obama Picks Clinton and Rice Will Promote Abortion at UN

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

Activist Groups Say Obama Picks Clinton and Rice Will Promote Abortion at UN

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 30
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Top abortion advocacy groups have nothing but good things to say about Barack Obama’s picking Hillary Clinton as the next Secretary of State and Susan Rice as the next United Nations ambassador. Both Planned Parenthood and NOW said they were delighted that Obama put the abortion advocates on his team.

Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards issued a press release saying Obama "announced a strong foreign policy team that will approach issues of women’s health and rights, family planning … with the seriousness and commitment they deserve."

Promoting abortion globally, which Planned Parenthood calls women’s "ability to control the size of their families" supposedly has a direct impact on their economic well-being, Richards contends.

That’s something the abortion business says Clinton "understands."

Richards says Rice "understands the important role the United Nations plays in promoting and protecting women’s health around the world, especially in developing countries."

Richards promised that Rice will promote abortion.

"We expect that she will work effectively with other countries to fulfill the UN’s development agenda, including the Millennium Development Goals," she said.

However, under the Bush administration the United States has rejected invitations from other nations to accelerate implementation of Millennium Development Goals, which could be used to push abortion.

As LifeNews.com has reported, in 2000, UN member states agreed to adopt eight broad, largely non-controversial Millennium Development Goals which address issues like eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, and reducing child mortality.

None of the MDGs makes any mention of “reproductive health” and neither does the Millennium Declaration upon which they are based.

Since failing to get a new, separate goal on reproductive health at the five-year review of the MDGs in 2005, pro-abortion advocates, including International Planned Parenthood Federation and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), have sought to attach reproductive health to the existing MDGs.

Under an Obama administration and with Clinton and Rice at the helm, the United States will likely back those pro-abortion efforts to promote abortion as an international right under the MDG or other documents.

The so-called National Organization for Women also applauded the choice of Clinton and Rice.

"As a candidate, President-elect Barack Obama made clear his commitment to" abortion, NOW president Kim Gandy said in a statement LifeNews.com received, "and today’s cabinet announcements begin to fulfill those values."

"NOW has worked with all three of these nominees," she said and added that "we look forward to collaborating with them" on promoting abortion "at home and abroad."

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