Conservatives Step Up Activities Overseas (emboldened)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060114/ap_on_re_us/exporting_culture_wars;_ylt=AqH_0JMzsCp5utLxl2hc6Lys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg

Conservatives Step Up Activities Overseas
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer 1 hour, 23 minutes ago

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.

he 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..

[NanceGreggs]

1. No, you wouldn't want to promote abortion and sex ed ...

... in Third World countries.

Where would these people get a new crop of starving children to totally ignore?

[ananda]

13. or to use as slaves or cheap labor...

... and to make American workers less secure and willing to accept jobs for less money and fewer or no benefits?

[cornermouse]

2. But, but, but,

its the Muslims that want to take over and convert everyone to their religion.

[feminazi]

3. gotta love it

deny birth control and sex education to the third world population and keep them perpetually in poverty. this must be part of the compassionate conversative agenda.

:sarcasm:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. What is wrong with these people?

They are trying to prevent not only abortion but sex education and birth control in poor third-world countries?? Who is going to feed those children? Somebody better explain to me how having their babies starve to death is better for these people than preventing pregnancies.

Jesus!

[depakid]

5. "the Population Research Institute"

Spreading dishonesty and irrationality around the globe.

America sure does seem to want every nation in the world to hate them. And, they're going to get what they wish for.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. By all means, let's get the rest of the world over-populated so they

can continue to fight us over the diminishing resources.

Asshats.

[rodeodance]

7. Some current examples of conservative activity overseas:

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.

[AX10]

8. If these governments are smart, they will declare...

these conservative groups "persona non-grata".

[wakeme2008]

9. But will they STOP shopping at Walmart because

almost everything in the store is from China which leads the world in abortions per year.

I bet NOT....

[pinto]

10. One big difference overlooked in the AP piece - RW groups are hijacking

our tax dollars - US foreign aid - and holding the targeted countries - recipients of US foreign aid - hostage to their political agenda.

This is manipulating the federal bureaucracy, not developing a "level field" of advocacy.

[Book Lover]

11. A true conservative would look at that headline

and his or her head would explode. A true conservative does not interfere with other nations culturally or politically. Sigh. I wish repubs, since they run the country, would put a few of their true conservatives into power, instead of helping out the Nosy Meddling Interfering Women of America.

[Charlie Brown]

12. Traditionally, conservatives are non-interventionist

It undermines the security and credibility of the US when the gov't meddles in the affairs of other nations and it threatens the free-market.

and the US certainly has nothing to gain from larger populations in the third world.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. k&r