|
|
|
| |||||
|
The campaign, led by Frances Kissling of the US-based pro-abortion Catholics for a Free Choice, seeks to have the Holy See's status at the UN downgraded from Permanent Observer to NGO, even though the Vatican is a recognized sovereign nation. Last year, Kissling asked "why ... an entity that is in essence 100 square acres of office space and tourist attractions ... with a citizenry that excludes women and children have a place at the table where governments set policies affecting the very survival of women and children." The "See Change" campaign, which includes the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the world's largest abortion provider, has singled out the Vatican for its ability to form coalitions of mainly Catholic and Muslim countries that block efforts to promote abortion, contraception, and population control or to redefine sexuality, morality, and the family in UN documents and conferences. Other members of the campaign, which has set up a web site and has taken out ads in The New York Times, include the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, Equality Now, Marie Stopes International, the National Abortion Federation, the Feminist Majority, the Sierra Club, Population Concern, Center for Research on Population and Security, the American Humanist Association, and Atheists United. C-fam observed, "Since the UN works by consensus, any small group of states can theoretically stop any piece of language they find objectionable. Since most states rely on foreign aid, the pressure to bend to the will of the Clinton Administration and the increasingly radical European Union is intense. The Holy See does not receive any foreign aid, so it cannot be pressured in the traditional ways." 
 |
|
January 21-23, 2000 volume 11, no. 15 NEWS & VIEWS
To print out text of Today's issue, go to: |
Search for anything from the last three years in past issues of the DailyCATHOLIC:
| |