From The Associated Press, 1/14/06:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-exporting-culture-wars,0,6610544.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
Conservatives Step Up Activities Overseas
By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer
NEW YORK --
From Peru to the Philippines to Poland, U.S.-based conservative groups
are increasingly engaged in abortion and family-planning debates
overseas, emboldened by their ties with the Bush administration and
eager to compete with more liberal rivals.
The result is that U.S. advocacy groups are now waging their culture
war skirmishes worldwide as they try to influence other countries'
laws and wrangle over how U.S. aid money should be spent.
"We don't expect to see the United Nations change, or Western Europe
change," said Joseph d'Agostino of the Population Research Institute,
a Virginia-based anti-abortion group.
"But with the Bush administration, pro-lifers feel there's a real
opportunity to stop the U.S. government from promoting abortion and
sex education and population control in the Third World."
Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America said U.S. conservatives
are trying to counter the influence long exercised by women's rights
and abortion rights groups at U.N. conferences and among international
non-governmental organizations.
"NGOs have tremendous power, but for so many years they have been the
playground for the leftist activists," Crouse said.
"It's only been during the Bush administration that those of us from
the right have had an opportunity to be on a level playing field."
Liberal activists believe long-term trends, notably the empowerment of
women through education and jobs, work in their favor throughout much
of the world.
But they acknowledge that U.S. conservatives have gained clout
overseas -- and intimidated some foreign advocacy groups -- because of
their influence on Bush administration policies.
"The collaboration of right-wing NGOs and the Bush administration far
exceeds any collaboration between pro-choice family groups and the
Clinton administration," said Frances Kissling, president of Catholics
for a Free Choice.
"We never had that kind of hand-in-glove relationship."
She said the Bush administration, with limited power to impose
conservative social policies at home, has implemented some foreign-aid
restrictions demanded by the religious right -- such as the so-called
"global gag rule" that denies federal family-planning money to any
foreign group that even discusses the possibility of abortions for
clients.
Conservative groups, notably the Population Research Institute, also
are credited by both allies and foes with convincing the Bush
administration to withhold U.S. funding from the U.N. Population Fund.
At issue are conservative allegations, vehemently denied by the
Population Fund, that the U.N. agency indirectly contributes to
coercive abortions in China.
"The far right says, 'Jump,' and the administration says, 'How high?'"
complained Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat who wants the
Population Fund money restored.
Some current examples of conservative activity overseas:
* Several prominent U.S. groups, including Focus on the Family,
Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council, are
helping prepare for a World Congress of Families in Poland in May
2007. The chief organizer, Allan Carlson of the Rockford, Ill.-based
Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society, said U.S.
conservatives view Poland -- where the new president staunchly opposes
abortion and gay marriage -- as a rare holdout to liberal, secular
trends throughout the European Union.
* In Peru, the Population Research Institute filed a complaint with
the U.S. Agency for International Development, contending that two
local groups had violated U.S. policy by using American funds to
promote legalization of the morning-after pill. Both groups were
warned, and one will have to return some funds, according to PRI's
d'Agostino.
* In Colombia, PRI has assisted local conservatives in opposing a
legal challenge to the country's sweeping ban on abortions. Though
rebuffed by the Constitutional Court last month, women's rights
activists plan to file a new lawsuit seeking to end Colombia's status
as one of three Latin American countries prohibiting all abortions.
* Several U.S. conservative groups have been helping rally opposition
to family-planning legislation pending in the Philippines. The bill
would provide some financial incentives for parents who limit
themselves to two children; critics also say it goes too far in
promoting sex education and access to birth control.
* American conservatives have strongly supported Bush administration
policies emphasizing abstinence as a favored strategy in overseas
HIV/AIDS prevention programs. U.S.-based groups focusing on abstinence
have received grants for prevention work in Africa, in some cases
drawing criticism that political ties overcame their lack of
expertise.
Activists on both sides trace the rise of overseas conservative action
to the mid-1990s, after anti-Communism faded as a cause and
anti-abortion, anti-feminist groups began engaging in major U.N.
conferences -- often taking stands in opposition to the Clinton
administration.
Now, with Bush as president, they feel empowered.
Carmen Barroso, director of International Planned Parenthood's Western
Hemisphere Region, said conservatives have been particularly active in
Latin America.
"They are very organized, with lots of resources and powerful allies
in the White House and the Vatican," she said.
"Whenever there's a major initiative to liberalize laws, they marshal
their forces against it. In the past, it was one or two isolated
efforts. Now it's a massive effort."
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"Who says I am not under the special protection of God?"
Adolf Hitler
Harry
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