On the morning of October 17, I and three other members of the PRI staff drove into Washington, D.C. I think that we were all a little nervous at leaving the relative security of Front Royal, the small Virginia town about 90 minutes from the nation’s capital, where we live and work. Anthrax attacks were being reported in the halls of Congress, our destination. Add to this the earlier attacks on the World Trade Center and, closer to home, on the Pentagon just a few weeks before.
But you can’t get any work done in foxholes, and we were all determined to continue to vigorously embrace and promote the Culture of Life. Especially now. Attempts to spread the Culture of Death by terror only strengthened our resolve to speak out on behalf of life.
The occasion of our trip into Washington was a hearing before the International Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives. It was to be a hearing before the full committee, specifically in response to our most recent investigation of China’s one-child policy. While most hearings are held before subcommittees of the International Relations Committee, Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) had determined that, because of the importance of our testimony, it was to be presented to all 60 members.
Elsewhere in these pages you will read the evidence that we presented that day on the UN Population Fund’s (UNFPA) involvement in forced abortion and forced sterilization in China. Let me just say here that we were able to convincingly rebut the UNFPA’s pretense that, in regions where it is active, “voluntarism” is the order of the day.
We were joined on the hearing panel of witnesses by human rights activist Harry Wu and a member of a Turkish-speaking minority, the Uyghurs, who are being targeted by Chinese family planning officials for forced abortions and sterilizations.
The UNFPA ducked the hearing, refusing to send anyone to testify despite repeated official invitations from the Committee. They did send a letter to Chairman Hyde claiming that their program in China was “voluntary” and stating that they do not condone coercion, but of course you can’t cross-examine a letter.
The two PRI witnesses at the hearing recommended strongly that, because of the UNFPA’s continuing involvement in coercive abortion and coercive sterilization in China, and no less because of its sheer duplicity about this involvement, no US funds should be appropriated for its support.
Immediately after our testimony, Committee members were called away for a security briefing. It was announced that because 32 Senate staffers had tested positive for Anthrax, both houses of Congress would be adjourning that same afternoon. Christopher Smith (R-NJ), the vice-chairman of the Committee, reconvened the hearing for questions, mostly having to do with the UNFPA’s past misrepresentation of its program in China. Then we adjourned.
What was the outcome of our efforts? The House has just passed legislation approving $25 million for the UNFPA, while the Senate earlier approved an increase to $39 million. By the time you read this, a foreign operations appropriations bill will be on the President’s desk awaiting his signature. The only question is whether it will bestow $39 million, $25 million, or some compromise amount upon the UNFPA. As a result of the evidence we presented, we hope that Congress will opt for the lower amount.
We circled around the back of the Pentagon on our way home. We were impressed at how quickly the bombed-out section was being repaired. It was a sign and a symbol of the work of the cultural renewal that we must all be engaged in. And I assure you that we at PRI will continue to speak out on behalf of life everywhere it comes under threat.
Global Family Life Initiative
In the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, Planned Parenthood offered free abortions to those “displaced” by the attack. (PRI was the first to report Planned Parenthood’s offer.) At a time when thousands of people lay dead under the rubble of the Twin Towers, their offer to slaughter additional innocents was unbelievably callous, and it generated a nationwide wave of protest.
Our reaction to the terrorist attacks, which has underlined for all of us the preciousness and precariousness of life, could not be more different from Planned Parenthood’s. With the encouragement of our Founder and long-time Chairman, Father Paul Marx, we are launching a new initiative to protect and defend life here in the United States and around the globe. We are calling it Global Family Life.
Under the banner of Global Family Life we will collaborate with pro-life and pro-family groups around the world, many of whom have worked with Father Marx for decades and wish to continue doing so through PRI.
Under the banner of Global Family Life we will encourage chastity, a virtue which is the first line of defense against life-destroying contraception, sterilization, and abortion, and we will promote abstinence among the unmarried and NFP among the wed.
Under the banner of Global Family Life we will foster a culture that reverences life and the family through the kinds of publications and conferences that Father Marx so successfully pioneered in over the past three decades.
In January we will publish the first issue of our new Global Family Life Newsletter, which will be distributed widely in the United States and abroad. Look for guest editorials by Father Marx.
And in April we will hold our Global Family Life Conference in Santa Clara, California. Join us and our special guest, Father Marx, as dozens of leading experts bring the Culture of Life home to thousands of attendees.
We find ourselves in difficult times. Young men are being asked to lay down their lives for our country. But I would ask you to continue to support our work through your prayers and donations. Generations of children yet unborn depend upon it.
