Population   Research   Institute,   led   by   Steven Mosher. C-Fam issues a UN-related fax message to its  constituents  every  Friday.  Ruse  has  used  the faxes to expose the “dirty laundry” of the UN and brag about C-Fam’s ability to disrupt UN activity. Such  groups  work  both  alone  and  in  “Family Rights”  coalitions,  sometimes  forming  seemingly unlikely  interfaith  alliances.  Shared  beliefs  connect people with similar views on traditional families and the role of women, whether Christian or not. C-Fam and    similar    organizations    with    ties    to    the Vatican/Holy See, Ruse says, consider countries such as Sudan, Libya, Iraq, Iran, and other moderate and hard-line   governments   as   “allies”   in   the   battle against abortion and homosexuality. Ruse explains the  effectiveness  of  stonewalling  in  an  institution where committee work runs on consensus: We don’t need them all; we need only a few [member states]… We establish a permanent UN  pro-family  bloc  of  twelve  states.  And upon these [conservative delegates] we lav- ish all of our attention.²² Ruse has learned how to work within the system at the UN, sometimes playing by the rules for NGOs and other advocates and from time to time flouting them.  He  has  boasted  about  what  he  sees  as  his notoriety among progressive groups: We  attended  all  of  the  women’s  meetings and   essentially   took   them   over.   Memos were  going  back  from  the  conference  in New York to governments in the European Union   that   radical   fundamentalists   had taken over the meeting, and that was us.²³ In 2006 Ruse became president of The Culture of  Life  Foundation  and  Institute  in  Washington, signaling his interest in directly lobbying Congress and  federal  agencies  on  behalf  of  conservative Catholics.  Ruse  remains  president  of  C-FAM, which  still  issues  “Friday  faxes”  and  continues  to watchdog the UN, but his move to Washington has given  Ruse  the  chance  to  flex  his  muscles  in  the D.C. ring.²⁴ Beginning  after  the  Cairo  conference  in  1994 but intensifying since 2000, groups like Concerned Women   for   America,   National   Right   to   Life Committee,  United  Families  International,  and  the Mormon-supported   World   Family   Policy   Center intensively monitor the planning schedule of inter- national  gatherings  sponsored  by  the  UN,  prepare lobbying strategies for each event, and participate— sometimes  with  large  contingents.  As  a  backlash effort,   such   anti-choice   NGOs   principally   target events on women’s issues, but they also try to influ- ence  policies  related  to  children,  families,  popula- tion, the environment, and human rights. Parallel to NGO work at the UN, a “pro-fam- ily”  movement  led  by  members  of  the  Church  of Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  (Mormons)  has emerged.   The   World   Family   Policy   Center   at Brigham Young University builds influence through its  annual  forums  for  UN  delegates,  ambassadors, and religious leaders from around the world on how WFPC sees UN policies affecting the family.²⁵ The  Howard  Center  for  Family,  Religion,  and Society, a “pro-family” organization in Rockford, IL headed by Alan Carlson, was closely involved in the planning  of  what  the  center  predicted  would  be  a major international conference, the Doha International Conference for the Family. This event may have looked like a UN-sponsored event, but it was  organized  separately  and  designed  specifically to   promote   a   “pro-family”   agenda.   Held   in November of 2004, Doha had as its mission to pro- tect the “natural family” as the fundamental unit of society.  Billed  as  an  international  conference  like Beijing or Cairo, Doha was independent of the UN. Its   explicit   anti-choice   focus   attracted   over   one thousand  participants,  but  this  was  much  smaller than  UN  conferences,  despite  several  prelininary regional events. UNd o i n g   R e p r o d u c t i v e   Fr e e d o m  ^•Christian Right NGOs Target the United Nations POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES   2006 7 ²²Austin Ruse as quoted in Jennifer Butler, “For Faith and Family: Christian Right Advocacy at the United Nations,” The Public Eye, IX, 2/3, Summer/Fall 2000, 10. ²³Austin Ruse, from his Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation speech, March 2000. http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/topics/other/documents/2001 badfaithattheun.pdf. For a more detailed account of C-Fam (also called CAFHRI), see Bad Faith at the UN, Drawing Back the Curtain on the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, (Washington, D.C.: Catholics for a Free Choice, 2001). ²⁴Catholics for a Free Choice, “Bad Faith Makes Bad Politics: The Culture of Life Foundation on Capitol Hill,” (Washington, D.C.: Catholics for a Free Choice, 2004), 24. ²⁵Larsen, Kent. “BYU’s Annual World Family Policy Forum Addresses UN Policies,” Mormon News, July 27, 2001. http://www.mormonstoday.com/010727/T3WFPForum01.shtml.