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PRO-LIFE CITIZENS SUPPORT BUSH ADMINISTRATION IN US CONGRESS

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2003 (C-Fam.org/LifeSiteNews.com) - In a move that took opponents by surprise, more than one hundred volunteers lobbied on Capitol Hill Tuesday in support of President George W. Bush's pro-life, pro-family positions in the international arena. Organizers chose the day to overlap a planned lobbying push of international pro-abortion groups, who feel increasingly threatened by President Bush's commitment to a new set of pro-life development priorities for the third world.

The lobbyists, organized and led by the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, the Eagle Forum, and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, wore bright red "Motherhood" lapel buttons and many of them came with their own young children. They told lawmakers why the Bush administration's policies were both moral and practical, and why women around the world deserved the same support and freedom from coercion that women in America enjoy.

The lobbyists made the case that British and American government investigators found evidence of coercion in the Chinese regions in which the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) operates, and explained why Secretary of State Colin Powell concluded that UNFPA helps China's forced abortion campaign to run more effectively. The lobbyists sought assurances from politicians that they would vote against reinstating US funding for UNFPA.

The lobbyist also defended the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits US funding for foreign family planning groups that perform or promote abortion. The lobbyists told lawmakers that the federal government does not pay for abortion in the United States, so Mexico City simply acts to extend this policy overseas. They also explained that the Mexico City Policy is not a form of censorship, since foreign groups are allowed to say whatever they would like about abortion, just not at US taxpayers' expense.

The lobbyists described US policy at UN conferences, and how the Bush administration has worked to ensure the rights of parents to control the education of their children, to ensure that "reproductive rights" do not include abortion for children as young as ten years of age, and to ensure that women in the developing world get more from the international community than condoms, things such as clean water, sanitation, and basic medical care.

This lobbying push was accompanied by advertisements in the Capitol Hill magazine CQ Today that were sponsored by a coalition of groups from around the world, such as the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in the United Kingdom, Focus on the Family, Human Life International and the Population Research Institute in the United States, Africa Christian Action, Pro-Life Tanzania., and Movimento Solidaridad Popular Cristiana in Mexico. These groups represent the views of millions of people worldwide.

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