White House Dumps Health Conference

     (FNIF - www.family.org/cforum/fnif) The Bush administration has pulled its sponsorship of an event featuring abortion advocates.

     After weeks of criticism from the pro-life community, the White House has pulled its funding from a controversial global health conference in Washington, D.C.

     The conference, which features participation from the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the United Nations Population Fund, is scheduled for June -- and the Department of Health and Human Services had planned to contribute $170,000 to it.

     But conservative members of Congress and other pro-lifers protested loudly, and, apparently, those objections were noticed, according to reporter Charles Hurt of The Washington Times.

     "The folks up on Capitol Hill just went ballistic about it," he said, "and apparently called the administration on the carpet about it."

     Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., said the administration should never have signed on to the event in the first place, because "all you had to do was look at the organizers who were political advocates, who advocated the defeat of President Bush, the defeat of every pro-life, pro-family, pro-responsible 'sex-inside-marriage' organization and issue there is."

     In another positive sign, as pressure mounted on Capitol Hill, organizers agreed to include conservative speakers like Shepherd Smith, president of the Institute for Youth Development; and Edward Green, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at Harvard University's Center for Population and Development Studies.

Read Washington Times coverage click here

By: Keith Peters
Source: Family News in Focus
Publish Date: April 27, 2004