Conservatives Step Up
Activities Overseas
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, January 14, 2006
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.''
(Emphasis Added)
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