From the Weekly Standard, on the priorities of international organizations

This November, Ellen Sauerbrey, representing the United States on the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, promoted a mild resolution–“very near and dear to us in America,” as she explained–that urged greater political participation by women around the world. Nineteen pro-abortion NGOs promptly sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Negroponte, rejecting the resolution because it didn’t mention abortion.

The examples of fanaticism go on and on. UNESCO has drifted so far into the abortion fight that an irritated Tommy Thompson, secretary of health and human services, finally sent a letter this month to the U.N. asking what declarations such as “Governments should make abortion legal, safe, and affordable” have to do with UNESCO’s supposed mission of promoting education, science, and culture. When Secretary of State Colin Powell cut off American funding for the United Nations Population Fund in 2002–on the reasonable grounds that UNFPA was hopelessly implicated in China’s forced-abortion policy–he was immediately attacked by E.U. development and humanitarian aid commissioner Poul Nielson, for creating a worldwide “decency gap” in failing to help UNFPA spread international abortion rights.