President Bush Appoints Pro-Life Ambassador to UN (6/04)

On 4June, President Bush appointed as ambassador to the United Nations former Missouri senator John Danforth, who accumulated a strong pro-life voting record (100%) during his tenure in Congress. The nomination should help pro-life groups, who have been waging a fight, along with the Bush administration, to stop expansion of abortion worldwide, to lobby the U.N. to approve a ban on all forms of human cloning, and to stop the UNFPA from supporting China’s coercive one-child policy. The UNFPA, a family planning agency at the U.N., denies any involvement in China’s population control program, which includes forced abortions and sterilizations. But testimonies from hundreds of victims and firsthand research from many organizations shoot down the agency’s claims. Danforth voted consistently against taxpayer funding of abortions — including sending taxpayer money to groups that perform abortions in other countries or lobby other nations and the United Nations to make abortion legal worldwide. He co-sponsored a human life amendment to the constitution to guarantee legal protection to unborn children and overturn the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Danforth’s did upset the pro-life community by voting for a bill limiting protests outside abortion facilities and supporting the use of fetal tissue from abortions in research. While in the Senate, Danforth also led the confirmation battle to confirm pro-life Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He voted for failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork as well. Danforth replaces Negroponte, who will become U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Negroponte earned praise for strong lobbying efforts in favor of a complete human cloning ban. The U.N. is expected to vote on the ban, co-sponsored by Costa Rica and the US [reconvenes 9/04]. Danforth’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, but a vote to approve him is considered likely. [7Jun04, LifeNews.com, #3278]