The Latest Objective Presentation of Truth from the Man Responsible for Denying U.S. Funding for UNFPA

Move over Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Karen Hughes: the Society for the Blaming of Terrorist Attacks on Abortions, Feminists, and Gay People has a new member, and his rhetoric leaves yours in the dust. Meet Steven Mosher, president of Population Research Institute (PRI), a "non-profit research and educational organization dedicated to objectively presenting the truth about population-related issues," and the source of countless objective presentations of truth on sexual and reproductive health. Mosher and PRI are perhaps most famous for their misinformation campaign against UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), the world's largest multilateral provider of reproductive health services, resulting in the Bush administration's decision to freeze the traditional $34 million U.S. contribution to UNFPA for five years running. It's nice when Steve & friends get to dictate U.S. policy on reproductive health, isn't it?

Mosher's latest screed—whoops, I meant objective presentation of truth about population-related issues—comes in the form of a PRI Weekly Briefing titled "How Not to Win the War on Terror: Keep Exporting Abortion and Sex Education."

Move over Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Karen Hughes: the Society for the Blaming of Terrorist Attacks on Abortions, Feminists, and Gay People has a new member, and his rhetoric leaves yours in the dust. Meet Steven Mosher, president of Population Research Institute (PRI), a "non-profit research and educational organization dedicated to objectively presenting the truth about population-related issues," and the source of countless objective presentations of truth on sexual and reproductive health. Mosher and PRI are perhaps most famous for their misinformation campaign against UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), the world's largest multilateral provider of reproductive health services, resulting in the Bush administration's decision to freeze the traditional $34 million U.S. contribution to UNFPA for five years running. It's nice when Steve & friends get to dictate U.S. policy on reproductive health, isn't it?

Mosher's latest screed—whoops, I meant objective presentation of truth about population-related issues—comes in the form of a PRI Weekly Briefing titled "How Not to Win the War on Terror: Keep Exporting Abortion and Sex Education." Beyond the self-explanatory title, the briefing isn't much more than a defense of The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and its Responsibility for 9/11, the latest book from fellow objective truth presenter Dinesh D'Souza. Mosher isn't fazed by the Cultural Left's predictable opposition to D'Souza's (See Stephen Colbert and Katha Pollitt for top-notch takedowns), what really gets him is the lack of widespread right-wing support for the claim that the American Left is "in part responsible for the rise of Islamic terrorism against the West" through its "relentless promotion of abortion, sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, divorce and other ‘rights' at home and abroad." Of course, Mosher's frustration with the lack of knee-jerk support for baseless, rhetoric-driven claims is somewhat understandable—after all, it's easy to get used to getting your way when the Bush administration takes your advice about UNFPA over the advice of four separate investigative teams, the State Department, and the Secretary of State himself.

Unsatisfied with a simple apologia, Mosher concludes the Weekly Briefing with a few objective presentations of truth of his own. While breaking down the kinds of U.S.-funded programs currently contributing to the recruitment of new generations of "jihadists," he explains:

The worst abuses are found in government-funded population control programs. The United States, both directly and through international institutions like the World Bank, has been exporting various social pathologies into relatively innocent and untouched corners of the world for going on 40 years now under the guise of "family planning" and "reproductive health." Billions of dollars a year are being poured into programs that promote abortion, fund coercive sterilization and contraceptive campaigns, reach into the schools with pornographic sex education programs, fund anti-family and anti-child radio and television programs, undermine primary health care, and encourage governments to intrude into the private lives of their citizens. Such programs create bitter resentment in Muslim and non-Muslim countries alike.

That's funny, because the last time I checked, the Bush administration recently cut $77 million from the already-starved international family planning and reproductive health services budget, it's been illegal for USAID to "promote abortion" overseas since the Helms amendment was passed in 1973, the Global Gag Rule blocks U.S. family planning funding for any foreign organization that so much as mentions the word abortion, we haven't given a red cent to UNFPA in over five years, and the Bush administration has worked tirelessly to build anti-family planning alliances with conservative Islamic states at numerous UN meetings since 2001. As a matter of fact, the only thing I can think of that we're currently pouring "billions of dollars a year" into is the war in Iraq … but that couldn't possibly be creating bitter resentment in Muslim and non-Muslim countries alike. Or, at least, not nearly as much as pornographic sex education programs are. Forget I even mentioned it.