Abortion push partly why human rights are declining globally, Trump religious freedom ambassador says
By: Ryan Foley, Christian Post reporter
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Abortion is not and never will be a human right. The right to life however is. Human rights campaigns around the world are destined to fail when the most basic of them and the foundational right on top of them all are not recognized and fraudulent fake rights Are. Abortion is the taking of the right to exist at all.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
As Friday marks United Nations Human Rights Day 2021, the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom argues the push by progressives to make abortion an international human right is “part of the reason the human rights project globally is in decline.”
Former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who served as the Trump State Department’s top international religious freedom official, spoke with The Christian Post this week about the state of human rights globally as the world honors the day in 1948 when the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
He addressed a variety of human rights issues — spanning from the upcoming Beijing Olympics to the religious persecution in places like Nigeria and Europe. He also spoke on abortion, a practice many liberals consider a human right and many conservatives believe to be an atrocity.
This year has seen intense debate nationally around the issue as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month in a case many believe could alter legal precedent on abortion in the U.S. As conservative states have passed laws that test the limit of Supreme Court precedent, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in September to establish a federal right to abortion.
“I think it’s wrong and I think it’s part of the reason the human rights project globally is in decline,” Brownback said.
In September, United Nations human rights experts spoke out against a Texas law passed earlier this year to ban abortion in most cases once a heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks, saying it will violate “women’s fundamental human rights” and could have a “devastating” impact on marginalized communities.
Brownback contends that “we’re not taking care of the foundation of human rights, with things like religious freedom and freedom of assembly and freedom of speech” and “instead we add human rights that people don’t agree are a human right.”
“Declaring abortion is a human right; it’s not a human right,” the former U.S. senator said. “Ask the child that’s being aborted if that’s a human right.”
Brownback described the push to classify abortion as a human right as “one of the big problems with the overall human rights project.”
No ‘global agreement on abortion’
He lamented that “things have been added or tried to be added to it that aren’t human rights.”
“Meanwhile, we don’t care of the foundations and the … basic human rights issues that we need, where there’s global agreement,” he said.
“There’s global agreement that you’re entitled to do with your own soul what you choose to and that government’s role is to protect that right. There’s not global agreement on abortion as a human right.”
On Friday, the National Right to Life Committee sent a letter to U.N. officials expressing profound disagreement with their assessment that the U.S. is violating international law because of the implementation of laws restricting abortion access in several states.
In the letter to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and U.N. Human Rights Council President Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan, NRLC President Carol Tobias lambasted the idea that the passage of the six-week abortion ban in Texas and the 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi violated “the United States’ obligations under the human rights treaties it has signed and ratified” as “absolutely false.”
“No United Nations treaty can plausibly be interpreted to require the legality of elective abortion,” she wrote. “No right to abortion has ever been established in international law.”
In the letter, Tobias quoted from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The covenant states: “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.”
She asserted that the document undermines the claim that international laws and treaties mandate “unlimited abortion.”
Noting that “human rights belong to everyone,” Tobias contends that they also belong to unborn children.
“Human embryos and fetuses are living members of the species Homo sapiens at the earliest stages of their lives,” she wrote. “They are human beings like us.”
“If all human beings have human rights, then unborn human beings have human rights,” Tobias added. “If everyone matters, they matter too.”
Religious freedom is a ‘core foundational right’
In addition to abortion, Brownback spoke with CP about other developments in the Western world that he sees as troubling.
He described the prosecution faced by an Evangelical Lutheran bishop and member of Parliament in Finland for publishing a booklet promoting traditional teachings about gender and sexuality as “troubling.”
“You may not agree with people’s views on something, but if they hold to a traditional set of moral values that are based on their … reading of their sacred text, we should honor that and we should find ways to accommodate people’s religious freedom as this core foundational right,” he said. “It’s the key to a pluralistic society.”
Brownback warned that “when the West puts limitations on religious freedom, it exacerbates … the religious persecution in places around the world that aren’t as interested in religious freedom.”
He said the U.S. is “the standard the world holds to,” emphasizing that “if we limit it, they say ‘Why can’t we?’”
Beijing boycott
Brownback praised the Biden administration’s recently announced diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics over China’s human rights violations. But he maintained that he doesn’t think it’s enough.
He called for an “advertiser’s boycott of the Olympics,” where “the Western advertisers pull their money out from advertising these Olympics if the Chinese won’t announce a date that they’re going to close the … Uyghur concentration camps down.”
The Chinese government has been accused of imprisoning over 1 million Uighur and other ethnic Muslims in Western China in concentration camps. They are said to be brainwashed to be more culturally Han Chinese and trained not to question the Chinese Communist Party. Some Uighurs have been subject to forced labor. The U.S. government declared China’s actions a “genocide” earlier this year.
Brownback believes that Western advertisers “shouldn’t be lining the pockets of a … government that’s conducting a genocide.”
He expressed gratitude that the World Tennis Association pulled their tennis tournaments from China.
“That cost them money and yet they were standing up for one of their own that was sexually abused, and they took a strong stance,” he said. “And I hope many of the rest of us can learn from that, that that’s the way to respond to the bully that’s an abuser.”
“I was really proud of them doing that, standing up,” he continued. “I hope the [National Basketball Association] would do something like that.”
Brownback repeatedly brought up the threat posed by China throughout the interview, labeling the nation “front and center on my view screen for religious persecution because of their reach.”
“They’re inventing the future of oppression,” he stressed, referring to China’s surveillance technology. He predicted that “the high tech systems that they’re deploying now, we’re going to see in a lot of other places around the world.”
“Wrong move”
Brownback condemned the removal of Nigeria from the U.S. State Department’s list of countries of particular concern, reserved for the worst countries that tolerate or engage in the violation of religious freedom.
Nigeria was placed on the list in 2020 as human rights groups and advocates sounded alarms about the violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt that has led to the killings of thousands of people from predominantly Christian farming communities. Although some activists have claimed that violence against Nigerian Christians has “genocidal” implications, the Nigerian government has refuted claims that a religious “genocide” is taking place, calling it part of decades-old farmer-herder conflicts.
Brownback said the State Department’s recent removal of Nigeria from the list was the “wrong move.”
He alleged that “the bureaucracy won” because it does not want the violence in Nigeria “to be seen as associated with religion in any way, shape or form.”
“There is a religious component to it, and we need to call it out,” Brownback said.
Addressing one of the major stories of the year, the U.S. military pullout of Afghanistan and the resulting takeover by the Taliban, Brownback told CP that “we need to get the religious minorities out of Afghanistan and we need third countries to … take them on a permanent basis.”
He called on the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Hungary and other countries to “take these religious minorities.”
In addition to Christians, he pointed to certain Muslim groups as religious minorities in danger due to the Taliban’s resurgence.
“I think really right now, we need to really try to get them out of harm’s way and permanently relocated somewhere else,” he explained. “There will be a genocide of religious minorities otherwise.”
Brownback also offered his thoughts on the exponential increase in arrests of political dissidents in Cuba this year.
“I’m not surprised. And often when a more liberal administration comes in, regimes around the world will step up their abuses of their own people,” he argued. “They … don’t think the U.S. will necessarily respond strongly. … It’s better if the U.S. has strong responses and not just diplomatic.”
The former ambassador spoke in favor of “real action” involving “real money and taking real security actions too.” He said that those kinds of moves are necessary because “they keep the world a safer place.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
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Brownback? Trump's religious ambassador?
Holy 'effen' Crackers.
That’s right! That was his job for four years and his assistant was Tony Perkins of the awesome Family Research Council founded by the great Pastor Janes Dobson.
Brownback -- a failed politician and a reactionary extremist/theocratic dominionist
Perkins -- a proven serial liar and a reactionary extremist/theocratic dominionist
Dobson -- a lunatic and a reactionary extremist/theocratic dominionist
Family Research Hate Council -- a reactionary extremist/theocratic dominionist pressure group engaged in distortion, lies and disinformation
All three named individuals, and the horrendous Family Research Hate Council, are vehemently opposed to democracy, human rights and true American values.
Brownback has been a US Senator, Governor, and ambassador. A great American and a defender of human rights.
Perkins is another great American. His defense of religious and individual liberty in America and around the world has been a great thing.
Dobson a great man of God, a good religious leader, and a defender of the Church as well as traditional values.
Family Research Council and Focus on the Family are great Christian organizations I’m proud to have supported and contribute
to.
All three named persons, and the awesome Family Research Love Council, are vehemently in favor of democracy, human rights, and true all American values.
False.
2.1.4 is ALL True.
Comment 2.1.4 is COMPLETELY false. You know, and everyone else knows it, too.
As is 2.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.6,
[deleted]
Only in your own mind.
It’s true In the mind of every fair minded objective observer bar none.
More like delusional minded.
Unlike the political left which lives in that state of mind, I have no experience as such
[deleted]
You only demonstrate it on a daily basis.
I personally demonstrate what, exactly?
You don't remember your own deleted post?
[Deleted]
So you deny what you said by saying you didn't say it? That's as good as lying.
Mother Teresa also expressed grave doubts about the existence of God throughout her life.
I’m sure she did not. They didn’t make a doubter into a saint. People who doubt the existence of God don’t serve Him the best way she knew how as a nun for life serving the poorest among us in a majority non Christian nation.
The more abortion the better.
Thus sayeth the CCP. Who is it better for?
The one who has the abortion (which is what matters) and for society in general.
Abortion is of no benefit whatsoever to any society. It only weakens the society it happens in
There are plenty of benefits.
Quite the opposite actually. Real world examples of countries where abortion was prohibited or severely restricted proves that statement wrong!
Some are so concerned about "human rights" when it comes to prohibiting abortion, what about the woman's right and autonomy? There seems to be no concern for her rights.
The rights of the actual are far superior to any claims about the potential
One would think. But apparently, not to everybody. Some seem to think rights are conditional, that once a woman becomes pregnant, she automatically loses certain rights. It's like being a free person, then being sold into slavery.
Once conception has occurred there is no more potential. That combination is human life at our 1st stage of human development. There is no other possible outcome of our development.
Demonstrably false! Conception is not guaranteed to progress to birth or not encounter complications, deformities, miscarriage, ect.. Development means it has not reached its conclusion. A cell is not yet human, just as a car is not yet a car until it rolls off the assembly line. Neither can a cell be granted rights without revoking the already established rights and autonomy of the woman carrying that cell.
A human being is a single cell for only a few hours of our very uniquely human experience. Just because some of us never make it to birth due to accident, illness, deformity, or being killed doesn’t make them any less human than we were at that stage of our own human development
Proving that it is only potential until live birth. The mother is real, a combination of egg and sperm is only something that might be
Humans are made up of cells. But cells are not human.
The cells that compose a human being aren’t human? What exactly are our cells then if not human cells?
The sperm and egg and their development as a human being are physically real and literally exist.
They are cells. A cell does not equate to actual full human. That's like saying s skin cell is the exact same as an individual human being. It is not.
But they are not yet a person.
From the moment of conception onward in our development we were never anything but a real person. There was never any potential for any other outcome.
The cells that develop as a result of conception are never ever anything but human
If they're still in development, then that means they are not yet a developed human. Thanks for defeating your own argument, such as it is.
A cell is not a person. We don't cry murder or mourn when we scratch some skin cells off our asses. Equating a cell with a real person is simply ludicrous.
Every single human being except Adam and Eve started our lives as a single cell. We don’t stay at that stage of our development for very long at all and other than a morning after pill can’t otherwise be aborted or killed at that stage.
Adam and Eve started their fictional lives as the product of an ancient Jewish guy's vivid imagination.
Your religious BS aside, a cell still isn't the same as s completed human. You really need to brush up on biology. No rational mind would confuse a cell with an actual human.
Imagination or delusion?
I didn't know the guy, so it's hard to say. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, let's say imagination.
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It is a complete human at conception as one cell and then quickly adds cells and develops through out our human pre born development.
No, they weren't, and there was no Garden of Eden.
... was the ancient Jewish guy with the vivid imagination that I mentioned above. I would know about that a whole lot better than you.
... was the generations of people who struggled to improve the human condition.
... to the extent that America is the world's leading democracy, unless Trump and his accomplices have their way, of course.
Yes they were and yes it was there will be again in the future.
God is not some ancient Jewish guy and the Bible had many authors.
(Continued)
The founding fathers of our nation were exactly right as to the true source of our rights and the source of our winning our independence as a nation.
It was Trump who made America great again and it’s Biden and democrats who are pissing it all away.
Demonstrably false.
If it's in development, then that means it is not yet complete. Simple logic and biology.
A nice little fantasy.
A nice little delusion.
Which brings its veracity into question..
Too bad neither they nor you could prove it.
You're kinder than I am.
really? What gets added in later that isn’t already present with the sperm entering the egg?
so what biological ingredients are added in later to the initial Union of the egg and the sperm according to logic?
There is no such thing as kindness on the secular progressive left.
It's not the ingredients. It's the assembly. A cake is only batter until it's finished baking.
[Deleted]
Apparently, ad hom attacks are a thing for you. That does not speak well for the right.
More cells and cellular differentiation.
[Deleted]
And I can quote Madison, Adam's, ect from original primary sources. Your point?
So you're just playing Pee Wee Herman games. How mature >sarc<
Thanks for preserving the bulk of my Thomas Jefferson paraphrase of his words in the Declaration of Independence. I appreciate it.