ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Our country is in a cultural crisis, and the rest of the world is soon to follow. Not because the world is changing, but because the left has been playing the long game and playing it well. They’ve spent years’ worth of time and our own tax dollars to promote their radical agenda on the international stage through organizations such as the United Nations, Organization of American States, UNICEF, WHO and more.
As Americans, and conservatives especially, we tend to not pay too much attention to the work that the United Nations or other international bodies are doing. We assume that these organizations are caring for those in need, providing health care, education and food to people worldwide, but this is only partly true.
We forget that these organizations operate as a political forum through which public policy is then created. It is precisely because they are political forums that progressive groups strategically have been advocating for their agenda within them for many years. These progressive groups recognize the reach and impact their agenda can have on many nations at once.
For instance, Planned Parenthood created its international branch named International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), which actively has advocated for abortion, “comprehensive sexuality education” and LGBTG+ rights in the United Nations since 1973.
Now, we witness the fruits of their engagement. IPPF is partnering on a vast range of publications, programs, and events with the United Nations and its agencies, through which they are expanding their pro-abortion agenda worldwide by presenting abortion and sexuality education as a human right. International organizations have become the primary source to spread their agenda worldwide through the creation of public policy that has a direct impact on countries’ national laws, frequently undermining their national sovereignty.
Despite the recent lean to the left, every international treaty on human rights protects the right to life, the family as the fundamental group of society, freedom of conscience and religion and the right of the parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions.
People tend to distance themselves from forums in which they do not feel they are directly affected. The problem is that we are indeed very much affected and for many reasons. The first, and biggest, is that our taxpayer dollars fund these organizations.
The U.S. is the largest funder of these organizations; its contribution towards the United Nations alone is $11,076,513,918 (billion). Germany, which is the second-largest donor, contributes $3,957,073,432. To put it simply, there is no other country in the world that contributes equal to or higher than the U.S., and all of our funding comes right from our own pockets. Here’s a taste of where that money is going:
UNICEF, a United Nations’ agency whose mission is to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, in its most recent report, stated, “There is no consensus on the degree to which pornography is harmful to children.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) published its standards for sexuality education in Europe. As part of its standards, it recommended giving information to babies from 0-5 years old on the “enjoyment and pleasure when touching one’s body, early childhood masturbation.”
We can blame our government for the outrageous promotion of abortion and gender ideology, for using our money to kill babies around the world, for attempting to undermine one of our most fundamental freedoms and even for indoctrinating our children.
However, there is one thing for which we cannot blame our government, and that is for not getting actively involved and holding them accountable for how our tax dollars are being spent. Our absence and rare presence towards these international forums have left an open path for the left to advance their abortion agenda.
If we surrender the culture battle globally, it is only a matter of time until it is surrendered here in America. At Concerned Women for America, we are determined to be the voice of hundreds of millions of women and girls worldwide who care for the unborn, the family, their children and their freedom to believe and express their beliefs free of coercion. We will fight tirelessly to defend these values and call on all Americans to wake up and join us in the fight.
• Neydy Casillas is vice president of international affairs for Concerned Women of America.
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