UNICEF: Trick or Treat?

"Tuesday June 20, 2006

Abortion-Pushing UNICEF Back for Hallowe’en – Whole Month of October new Collection Drive

By Hilary White

TORONTO, June 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At the end of May, LifeSiteNews.com reported that the United Nations International Children’s’ Fund (UNICEF) announced that it would be ending its annual Hallowe’en collection drive. The UNICEF spokesman, Evelyne Guindon, said that the collection of coins by school children that had been a feature of Canadian life for five decades was costing more money than it was worth, but that “alternatives” were being considered.

Now UNICEF Canada is coming back with “Trick or Treat for UNICEF,” a program for schools to encourage children to become involved in the abortion-promoting group.

UNICEF Canada’s website says, “Our vision is to build an enhanced partnership with schools and provide more meaningful participation and educational opportunities for children.”

The plan is to extend the fundraising through the schools for the entire month of October. “Instead of students collecting change in the UNICEF box on Halloween night, schools will receive fundraising kits that can be used anytime during the month of October.”

Pro-life advocates have campaigned for years against the organization’s dedication to the abortion philosophy, calling on them to return to their original vision. In 2002, Joe Woodard writing in the Calgary Herald, revealed that the organization had been transformed into just another branch office for the anti-life and anti-family policies of the UN.

Woodard wrote, “This trend was codified in the 1998 declaration in Geneva of a partnership of the Children's Fund, World Health Organization and UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). That partnership -- the Co-ordinating Committee on Health -- aligned UNICEF with UNFPA's major partner agency, International Planned Parenthood, which ranks second only to the Chinese government in the volume of abortions it provides.”

In the years following the Second World War, the group was founded to bring much needed material aid to children, including the thousands of orphans left destitute after the war. But since the 1970’s UNICEF has shifted its focus to promote the UN's population control agenda, including abortion and contraceptives for children and young people, and sex education under the auspices of "family planning" and "reproductive rights."

In 1997, the Catholic School board of Toronto discontinued its support for UNICEF and Campaign Life Coalition convinced a number of Toronto's Catholic schools to introduce a similar box to collect funds for a local women's crisis pregnancy centre, Aid to Women.

In 1996, the Vatican announced that because of UNICEF’s abortion advocacy, it would cancel its token $2000 annual donation to the organization.

Some pro-life and pro-family international aid organizations assisting mothers and children in the developing world include:

MaterCare International
http://matercare.org/

MaterCare International
8 Riverview Avenue
St. John's, Newfoundland
Canada A1C 2S5
Phone: 709-579-6472
Fax: 709- 579-6501
E-Mail: info@matercare.org

Canadian Food for Children
http://www.canadianfoodforchildren.org/
3218 - 224 Street, Langley, B.C. V2Z 2G8
Phone: 604-534-4544
Email: CFFC_BC@yahoo.ca

Aid to the Church in Need
http://www.kirche-in-not.org/index.html

Bischof-Kindermann-Str. 23
D-61462 Königstein im Taunus
Tel.: 06174 291-0
Fax: 06174 3423

Pro-life supporters looking for a home for their donations can also send assistance to LifeSiteNews.com directly through our website: http://www.lifesite.net/contribute/

To contact UNICEF Canada with your concerns:
Halloween@unicef.ca

UNICEF Canada
Canada Square
2200 Yonge Street, Suite 1100
Toronto, ON M4S 2C6
Telephone +1 416 482 4444
Fax +1 416 482 8035
Email secretary@unicef.ca

Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

UNICEF to End Hallowe'en Box Collection in Canada
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06053008.html

Read the pamphlet:
UNICEF; Guilty as Charged
http://www.lifesite.net/waronfamily/unicef/unicef.pdf

Read LifeSiteNews.com special report:
UNICEF's Other Agendas
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/oct/021030a.html



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UNICEF this Halloween?

A reader commented on one of my UNICEF posts, which was a quote from LifeNews 2006, asking for evidence about the link between UNICEF and abortion providers. The most current report from LifeNews is still warning against giving to UNICEF. For more on this see my detailed comments on last year's post on this topic, which I have updated today in response to the reader. Thanks to a dear friend for her help in getting me the links for these reports.

"Parents Warned Against Giving to UNICEF this Halloween - UNICEF Still Promoting Abortion
By John-Henry Westen

TORONTO, October 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Halloween is here again, and with it the fundraising drive for UNICEF, the so-called children's fund of the United Nations, which has been mired in abortion support for the last twenty years. The organization has not learned from its past and continues to engage in the anti-life agenda. Earlier this month UNICEF joined Planned Parenthood International and the UN's population control arm UNFPA in sponsoring a women's conference, one thirds of which was dedicated to promoting abortion. (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07101201.html )

UNICEF has been implicated in population control and "family planning" measures for many years as thoroughly documented in Winifride Prestwich's 1993 pamphlet UNICEF: Guilty as charged. The organization descended even further in 1995 when Carol Bellamy, a radical pro-abortion activist, became the executive director of the organization, a post she held till April 2005. From her elevated position, Bellamy turned UNICEF into a more direct force behind the promotion of abortion and abortifacient contraceptives working hand in hand with the notorious UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in such activities. (See LifeSiteNews.com's archive on such UNICEF activities: http://www.lifesite.net/waronfamily/unicef/ )

The change in focus at UNICEF quickly became apparent causing the Vatican's UN Mission to issue a press release in 1996 noting that it was withdrawing its symbolic donation of support to UNICEF. The release noted that UNICEF had "begun to divert some of its already scarce economic and human resources from the care of the most basic needs of children" to abortion supporting activities. (see the Vatican release: http://www.lifesite.net/waronfamily/unicef/vatican1196.html )

Jim Hughes, Vice President of International Right to Life Federation suggested that pro-lifers use the opportunity to give support to international aid organizations assisting mothers and children in the developing world, and at the same time respect the right to life.

Such organizations include:

MaterCare International
http://matercare.org/

Canadian Food for Children
http://www.canadianfoodforchildren.org/

The Holy Childhood Association
http://www.holychildhoodusa.org/

Pro-life supporters looking for a home for their donations can also send assistance to LifeSiteNews.com directly through our website: http://www.lifesite.net/contribute/
"

Updated Report on UNICEF for this Halloween

"Life News - October 2008
HEALTH & SCIENCE
UNICEF
It’s that time of year again – those little
orange boxes carried by children or
positioned at the check-out line in the grocery store—
asking for donations to the United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF). Years ago, UNICEF was created to
address the issues of poverty, clean water and education
for the world’s children. Today, the organization is heavily
involved in promoting abortion in developing countries.
A UN-sponsored conference was held last October in
London entitled “Women Deliver.” Out of the 98
scheduled sessions, 35 focused on abortion and 2
addressed newborn health. Each of the three daily opening
plenary sessions highlighted ‘reproductive rights’ with
leading abortion advocates. None of the sessions
addressed primary child health issues such as vaccine
availability, clean water, safe sanitation, availability of
basic nutritional supplementation, training for village
health workers in identifying calorie malnutrition, or
provisions of foodstuffs to combat protein calorie
malnutrition. Child mortality was minimally addressed as
well.

A 2004 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
report acknowledged that the best way to reduce maternal
mortality was through the presence of skilled birth
attendants and emergency obstetrics. These issues were
minimally addressed at the October 2007 conference.
Caesarian births, peri- and post-natal care, stillbirths and
related complications were also downplayed at the
conference. Obstetric fistula, the subject of a UNFPA
awareness campaign, was only addressed twice.

Over the past few months, UNFPA and other UN
agencies have been pushing a new target of “universal
access to reproductive health by 2015.” In 2000, more
than 150 heads of state met and developed an agreement
consisting of eight broad goals (Millennium Development
Goals, MDGs) such as eliminating poverty and hunger,
achieving universal primary education and reducing child
mortality. None of these goals mentioned ‘reproductive
health’—a term that is used to promote abortion. The UN
General Assembly has never agreed to such a definition.

Prior to the five-year review of the MDGs in 2005,
pro-abortion advocates including the International Planned
Parenthood Federation and UNFPA launched an
aggressive campaign to adopt a new goal on ‘reproductive
health.’ This effort failed. A political declaration
endorsing ‘reproductive health’ was issued, but it is
non-binding and has no force in international law.
Abortion promoters have been trying since then to attach
‘reproductive health’ to the existing MDGs.

At the board meeting of UNICEF in June, 2008, the US
delegation took issue with the latest UNICEF report which
included a reference to a ‘reproductive health’ target under
the MDGs. US representative to UNICEF Bill Brisben
stated that the US is committed to achieving the core
MDGs agreed to in the Millennium Declaration and
reaffirmed the 2005 Outcome Document of the World
Summit. He continued, however, that the US “does not
support the addition of new goals, targets, or indicators to
the internationally-agreed Millennium Development
Goals…neither we nor other UN Member States have
agreed to the creation by the UN Secretariat of a new
MDG target on reproductive health.”

Last month, the US rejected an invitation to join a new
Danish campaign calling on governments to “accelerate
implementation of Millennium Development Goal 3”
calling for “gender equality and women’s empowerment.”
Many believe this campaign is intended to go beyond the
mandate and will be used to promote a new MDG on
reproductive health supported by abortion advocates. The
Danish government initiated the “Torch Campaign” to
encourage governments and society to “Do Something
Extra” to accelerate achievement of MDG 3. The
campaign calls on governments to ensure women’s
“sexual and reproductive health and rights” by claiming
that “access to services and information on sexual and
reproductive health will empower women to make their
own choices about the number of children they have, safe
pregnancy and delivery.”

Abortion advocates have been attempting to attach
‘reproductive health’ to MDG 5 which focuses on
improving maternal health. The Torch Campaign is
attempting to raise $500 million to improve the lives of
women through the Thematic Fund on Maternal Health. In
addition to focusing on the reduction of maternal death
and disability, this fund also addresses “adolescent sexual
and reproductive health and the prevention of unsafe
abortion and the management of its complications.”
UNICEF is one of the “torch bearers” in this campaign,
along with the World Health Organization and the United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Pro-life UN watchers remain concerned that the
disproportionate focus on unsafe abortion based on
questionable maternal mortality figures detracts from
addressing the major health risks to pregnant women in
the developing world, including severe bleeding,
eclampsia and obstructed labor. A representative from a
pro-life NGO (Non-governmental organization) stated at
the 2007 conference in London, “If UNICEF and the other
organizers cared more about maternal and child health
they would focus on the top killers of women and
children. It is clear to us that this conference is more about
promoting abortion than it is about dealing with the issues
that most women face every day.”

Sources: www.lifesite.net 10/12/07, www.lifenews.com 10/4/07,
www.c-fam.org 7/10/08, 6/19/08
Regina Carbonaro—516-795-7568—reg5carb@aol.com

Reprinted with special permission from Life News - October 2008; publication of the Long Island Coalition for Life "

Pampers not Pro-Life

Those of you who watch television might have seen the Pampers commercial touting its alliance with the abortion-advocating, International Planned Parenthood-allied UNICEF (I wrote on this prior to last Halloween). One box of Pampers = one vaccine to a child in an underdeveloped nation. I have yet to look into what type of vaccines are being used. (See Leticia’s posts where she advocates vaccines completely developed from lines without the use of embryonic cells.) However, the next time I shopped for Pampers, I was automatically looking for the green box with size 4 on it. I have been using Pampers for many years now. They did not have the size I needed, and I was given pause when I saw another size box with the sponsorship for UNICEF now advertised in bold on the box. I begrudgingly grabbed a box of LUVS, which I am not at all happy with, and will try Huggies next time. It strikes me as so contradictory that a company that sells baby products would contribute to a group with anti-life philosophy. After all, they would have so many more bottoms to cover if more babies were born. But then we always knew Lucifer comes as an Angel of Light, didn’t we? Ignorance is bliss when we go shopping, but it can be a real headache once you are armed with a little bit of knowledge. It would be so much easier for us if Pro-life companies formed an alliance with a universal symbol indicating this.