U.N. Idea Makes Families Yield Control

Imagine straightening up your 11-year-old's room and finding condoms, literature on how to use them, sexually explicit 'educational' materials and other sexually oriented paraphernalia. With a shock you decide you need to confront your child and ask some questions. You are not ignorant or squeamish about sex and fully intended to have 'The Talk' with your child about these matters at a time you deemed appropriate.

'Where did you get this stuff?' you demand to know. 'At school,' comes the casual reply. Immediately you picture some older kids in the school yard cornering your child with unsolicited 'facts.' Then your child pipes up that a lady was brought in from an organization called Planned Parenthood to speak to the students for a special 'Reproductive Rights and Sexual Health Day.'

Outraged, you call the school principal for an explanation and are coolly informed: 'It is our experience that parents are ill- equipped to deal with matters of 'sexual and reproductive health' with their children.' So the school took it upon themselves to invite 'experts' including a physician, to hold an all-day workshop for students of all grades at your child's elementary school. The stress was on instructing the children on 'peer education' on these matters. So, while you are not qualified to teach your children about sex, their classmates are.

You decide, along with some other distressed parents to take action starting with local authorities and end up speaking to your U.S. representative who tells you nothing can be done about it, even despite your religious beliefs.

Far-fetched? It isn't. This is precisely the agenda that was pushed (rammed is not too strong a word) by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) at a recent conference at The Hague, The Netherlands.

The conference was entitled the Cairo+5 Conference for Population and Development, held Feb. 6-12. Among the festivities at this international conference was a two-day Youth Forum heavily scripted by UNFPA officials. Conference organizer, Marianne Haselgrave of the Netherlands-based World Population Foundation, acknowledged that the youth delegates from around the world were selected by country officers of the UNFPA, and belonged to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) founded by the UNFPA. The youth discussions were also monitored by adult UNFPA personnel who guided the discussions and made sure they went in the right direction according to the UNFPA agenda. (How difficult can it be to convince hormonally-challenged high school and college-aged youth that they have a 'right' to sexual pleasure, contraception and abortion while their parents have nothing to say about it?)

According to the pro-family U.N. watchdog group, The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, (C-Fam) in their weekly Internet report, 'Friday Fax' of Feb. 8, the Youth Document calls for reproductive education for children in grade school and omits parental supervision completely. According to Friday Fax, 'Haslegrave responded to a query today about why 'peer education' on 'reproductive health' was advanced in the Youth Document. Seeking advice from other children and from health professionals was superior to asking parents, she said, because 'nobody is likely to see a health professional who is likely to tell your mother that you went there." (For a free subscription to Friday Fax, e-mail austinruse@c-fam.com)

First Lady Hillary Clinton spoke twice at the conference enthusiastically endorsing the UNFPA agenda, and promising that the Clinton administration would do everything possible to release the U.S. pledge of $25 million to the UNFPA which has been held up by Congressmen -- notably Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey -- who object to your tax dollars furthering this cause, and China's one- child policy, while operating under noble sounding language about 'women's health and reproductive rights for poor women in the third world.' In actuality, poor countries are forced to accept this agenda of abortion, sterilization and contraceptives often in conflict with their religious traditions and demographic needs in order to receive food, medicine and other needed aid.

Standing to profit from this agenda, of course, is The International Planned Parenthood Federation. Gloria Feldt, president of The Planned Parenthood Federation of America was an official delegate to the official U.S. delegation to the conference.

If the UNFPA agenda is successful, 'sexual and reproductive rights' including the 'right' to sexual pleasure extending down to children aged 10 and up would be declared universal human rights, superseding the rights of national sovereignty, religious traditions, and the sovereignty of the family (that is, parental rights).

But it is not a done deal -- yet. It has to pass through a U.N. preparatory committee in New York March 22-31, on to a final vote by the U.N. General Assembly in June.

If you prefer that your children learn the facts of human sexuality from you rather than the bedfellows of the UNFPA and Planned Parenthood, the time to let your elected representatives know is now, not later.

John Mallon attended The Hague conference for  Inside the Vatican magazine.  He is contributing editor for Inside the Vatican and a member of The Daily Oklahoman's Opinion Board of Contributors.  This article originally appeared in The Daily Oklahoman on 03/17/1999 and is reprinted with permission.  Send an e-mail to John Mallon