Obama grants abortion advocates' wish, creates ambassador for women's 'issues'
After receiving a letter from several abortion "rights" organizations, President Obama has created a position to address women's concerns around the globe. On Friday the White House announced that he would nominate Melanne Verveer, an abortion supporter, to fill the new position of Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues.
The January 23 letter, signed by the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Feminist Majority, the International Planned Parenthood Federation and several others, praised Obama for repealing the Mexico City Policy.
The letter also requested that he work to "ensure that officials from your Administration act as a strong voice for women's sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United Nations and other international arenas and do all in their power to translate international agreements into actions that improve women's lives."
On Friday, a statement from the White House announced the creation of the new position and lauded the President's "unprecedented" decision which reflects the elevated importance of global women's issues to the President and his entire Administration."
The statement also noted that the Ambassador-at-Large for Women's Issues, Melanne Verveer is the co-founder, chair and co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international organization that invests in emerging female leaders. Prior to founding Vital Voices, Verveer served as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady in the Clinton Administration and was chief assistant to then First Lady Hillary Clinton in her international activities.
Additionally, Verveer took the lead in establishing the President's Interagency Council on Women, which serves as a model for governments to address issues of concern to women.
LifeNews.com spoke with Marie Smith, director of the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues who noted that combined with the President's order to rescind the Mexico City Policy, the latest appointment "adds to the evidence that both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are pursuing a global abortion agenda" making "no attempt at common ground."
She also added that Obama's new nominee will promote abortion at a time when women need assistance such as economic support and education.
"It is tragic that the United States will pursue a path of imposing an extremist view of abortion that 60% of the world's countries reject, while at the same time, women globally are in need of life-affirming measures to improve their and their families' lives," Smith said.
Source: Catholic News Agency
Source URL: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com
Publish Date: March 10, 2009
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/090311_4.htm
