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"Idol Gives Back" Project Supports Abortion

NEW YORK, March 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Once again, "American Idol" is aligning itself with pro-abortion Save the Children and UNICEF. On March 8, 2007, "American Idol" unveiled its "Idol Gives Back" project, the stated goal of which was to "raise awareness of the effects of poverty on children and young people." Last year the project generated more than $75 million.

The second Idol Gives Back program will air on April 9, 2008. Like last year, several celebrities will appear on the show to urge Americans to make a donation.

"For years UNICEF spokesmen denied promoting contraception or abortion," wrote Winifride Prestwich in UNICEF: Guilty As Charged. She said records prove that "step by step over a 30-year period UNICEF has tied itself to the population controllers and to the anti-life, anti-family attitudes of such organizations as the International Planned Parenthood Federation."

A study released by the International Organizations Research Group (IORG) documented UNICEF's ties to abortion and radical feminism. UNICEF: Women or Children First? showed that UNICEF has helped write many documents that call for increased access to abortion and the legalization of the deadly act worldwide.

IORG discovered that UNICEF has funded a program run by the militantly pro-abortion Population Council, which holds the U.S. patent for the abortion pill, RU-486. UNICEF has also supported a South African group that targets adolescents with a pro-abortion message.

It is now official UNICEF policy to "Promote and expand access to sexual and reproductive health services, including access to condoms," the IORG report stated. A high-ranking UNICEF official even called for his group to "make condoms available and accessible for everybody, everywhere and at all times. Abstinence is simply not a realistic option for most young people in the world today."

The evidence that UNICEF has actively promoted the Culture of Death is overwhelming and indisputable:

- In 1987, UNICEF officially endorsed "good quality abortion services" at the International Conference on Better Health for Women and Children in Nairobi, Kenya.

- In 1993, UNICEF raised its contribution to the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) open support for Communist China's "one-child family" policy from $2 million to $5 million.

- In 1997, the Vatican cut funding to UNICEF after the group co-sponsored a manual that endorsed emergency birth control. (Emergency birth control can cause an early abortion.)  UNICEF also refused to provide a detailed accounting of its population control and pro-abortion programs.

- On October 26, 2002, the Calgary Herald reported that UNICEF has been straying from its mission for many years. The article, titled "UNICEF's Other Agendas," included an interview with Mary Kassian, author of The Feminist Gospel. "Hundreds of thousands of children are still dying of TB or malaria, or because they don't have clean water. And the UN is giving them IUDs...I chose long ago not to support UNICEF and to support those good causes through other agencies that aren't tainted."

Save the Children has a working relationship with what it calls "prominent international organizations." Several of these groups are actively pro-abortion, including Better World Fund, Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Population Action International, and the U.S. Committee for UNICEF.

In 2001, Save the Children worked with Planned Parenthood, the Population Action Council, and the pro-abortion Audubon Society on its five-year "Planet Campaign."  Funded by the rabidly pro-abortion/population control David and Lucile Packard and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations, the purpose of the campaign was to "raise awareness of the connections between international family planning and the health of children, women and the environment." The Planet Campaign used television and print advertising, community outreach, special events, and other activities to spread its message. Save the Children said the campaign's website provided "an international forum for discussion of, and action on, women's reproductive health - including family planning - in various countries and diverse cultures around the world."

Save the Children has stated that "family planning" has been a "critical component" of its work for nearly 20 years. The group quoted a UNICEF document which stated that "family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race." Save the Children noted that the report identified "access to family planning" as a "key factor contributing to maternal and child survival and well-being."

"It is laudable that the people involved with 'American Idol' want to help the poor," said LDI President Douglas R. Scott, Jr. "But it is tragic that they would choose to do so through groups like UNICEF and Save the Children. These groups have far too much deadly baggage." Of course, what many people do not know, because "American Idol" has not chosen to mention it, is that Simon Cowell is the chief executive officer of International Save the Children. This is surely why Save the Children was selected as a recipient charity.

"'American Idol' should stop using the contestants to raise money for groups when they are keeping the activities of these charities a secret," Scott said. "'American Idol' should practice full disclosure and give those contestants who may wish to decline participation in 'Idol Gives Back' the opportunity to do so without repercussions."

"If you believe the plight of preborn children is as important as the plight of the poor, do not participate in 'Idol Gives Back'" Scott urged. "We are caring people who want to do our part to help those less fortunate, but we will do so through organizations that do not view the killing of human beings as a 'solution' to poverty and other adult-created problems."

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