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BANGKOK, December 12, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Abortion activists have set their sights on the the Fifth Asian and Pacific Population Conference, which opened this week in Bangkok, in an attempt to block the Bush Administration’s unravelling of the so-called “reproductive rights” agenda of the 1994 International Conference of Population and Development in Cairo.  Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice says that, “Unless this attempt to undermine the Cairo agreement is stopped at the Bangkok meeting, we fear that the U.S. and the Vatican will turn important U.N. efforts to evaluate success of family planning into polarized debates, thus blocking progress on making family planning available to all women and men.”  Kissling is joined by Canada’s Katherine McDonald of Action Canada for Population and Development (an affiliate of Planned Parenthood and the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League), who said: “The United States may only hold one vote, but they hold the purse strings for many aid dollars.” McDonald is a former executive member and legal counsel for Planned Parenthood.  But pro-lifers predict the Bush agenda will prevail. “Since the Bush administration came into office, we’ve seen a very programmed and strategic effort by the U.S. delegation to roll back the language of these agreements,” said Ellen Sweet with the International Women’s Health Coalition. Adds Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, “A lot of governments all over the world are rallying to the Bush administration.”  For full CNSNews coverage see:  https://www.cnsnews.com/Politics/archive/200212/POL20021211a.html   For related coverage see:  CANADIAN GROUP TRAINS ASIAN YOUTH IN UN ABORTION ADVOCACY https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/jan/00012501.html VATICAN REP WARNS OF INTERNATIONAL ABORTION PROMOTION AT U.N.  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/mar/01033001.html