Hello Friends:
As 2010 comes to a close, we at United Families International have much for which to be grateful. It has been a year of challenges and blessings.
Although those who would see the family dismantled, the culture of death cultivated, parental rights diminished, and religion abolished from society continue their destructive work, this year has been marked by encouraging advances for the pro-family cause.
We thought we might slightly change our tradition of listing the year’s “Top Ten” and give you a list of five things that stood out as positive developments for the cause of families. We follow that with a list of five dangerous trends for those concerned about the future of families. United Families International will be devoting a larger share of our focus to these concerns during the upcoming year.
Good News for the Cause of Families – The Top Five
1. Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers had a tough year. By way of example, this past fall Gov. Christie of New Jersey defunded a large portion of Planned Parenthood’s operating budget. A significant number of abortion mills around the country closed their doors as well.
2. More pro-life, pro-family individuals, particularly women, were successful in their bid for public office. Thank you to all who voted for and worked on campaigns to place these public servants in office. Please join UFI as we monitor their work and let’s aid them in their efforts to create policy that supports and protects families and the unborn.
3. The Lancet finds maternal mortality rates have fallen. Contrary to the claims of pro-abortion advocates, legalized abortion worldwide is not necessary to reduce maternal mortality rates. This information has been a significant help in UFI’s efforts to stop the pro-abortion juggernaut within the UN and international system.
4. A proposed “Right to Comprehensive Sexual education” is defeated at the UN. International policy makers were defeated in their efforts to over-ride parental rights, promote “sexual rights” to young children, deconstruction male/female roles and normalize a range of sexual behaviors.
5. Last summer Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was instrumental in blocking abortion from being included as part of the G8 Global Initiative. Further outraging radical feminists and pro-aborts, Harper was recently appointed as a co-chair of a new UN commission on improving maternal and children’s health in developing countries. All of this should help the focus to be properly placed on the real needs of women and children around the world – and that’s good news!
Dangerous Trends for the Cause of Families – The Top Five
1. There is an increasing effort to eliminate “conscience clauses” – the ability of professionals to “opt out” of performing procedures that they find to be morally objectionable. This is all part of a broader attack on religious freedom and free speech rights of individuals to act upon their religious beliefs. Earlier this year in an article entitled “Open Season” on Religion,” we alerted you to an overt increase in anti-religion rhetoric coming out of the UN.
2. “Cohabitation rates spike 13 percent in one year.” As the institution of marriage is further weakened, cohabitation rates are continuing to increase and more and more children are being born without the well-documented benefits of both a mother and father in a stable marriage. Governments can never create enough social programs to compensate for stable marriages that fail to form – watch for a continued burgeoning of the “nanny state” as a result.
3. The upcoming International Year of Youth will culminate this summer in a UN World Youth Conference. There is still ambiguity in the schedule and venue for this event, but if preparatory meetings and declarations are any indication, UFI expects many outrageous and dangerous precedents could emerge from this landmark conference. UFI is already preparing to attend and laying out a plan to combat a pro-sexual rights, pro-abortion agenda – directed at the young people of the world.
4. There is a continual push by gay rights activists for “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” to be classified as new categories of non-discrimination. These citations would then be used to argue that there is an “international consensus” on homosexual rights – and pressure to countries to change their laws would soon follow. Although these terms have never been defined in any UN document, on Dec. 21 (with the help of U.S. Ambassador Rice), “sexual orientation” was placed into a adopted UN document on extra-judicial executions. We expect gay activists to be invigorated by this victory and intensify their efforts within the UN system.
5. Perry v. Schwarzenegger (California’s Prop 8 case) will continue to work its way through the court system, and the definition of marriage for all Americans will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. For an excellent review of what’s at stake, we recommend Perry v. Schwarzenegger: The Beginning of the End of Religious Freedom in America.
Suffice it to say, these issues don’t go away. It is only through your support and your much-needed financial contributions that we are able to continue our crucial work. Please take a moment in these waning hours of 2010 and make a donation.
Thank you for linking arms with United Families International.
Together, we’ll go forward into 2011.
Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Mike Duff
President, United Families International