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[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 306 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 306

 Expressing the sense of the Senate with respect to Mother's Day that 
the United States Senate should reject the United Nations Convention on 
 the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as it demeans 
           motherhood and undermines the traditional family.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 11, 2000

Mr. Helms submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate with respect to Mother's Day that 
the United States Senate should reject the United Nations Convention on 
 the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as it demeans 
           motherhood and undermines the traditional family.

Whereas motherhood is a God-given right of women to bear and rear children;
Whereas, since 1914, the United States has officially observed the second Sunday 
        in May as Mother's Day to display public expression of love and 
        reverence for all American mothers;
Whereas Mother's Day is recognized by the United States and many other countries 
        in affirmation of the invaluable role mothers play in providing a family 
        upbringing for children;
Whereas the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women 
        integrates a derogatory sentiment toward motherhood as manifested in the 
        Convention's January 3, 2000 Committee Report on Belarus specifically 
        condemning symbols such as Mother's Day;
Whereas the Senate affirms its commitment that the United States should work 
        with other nations to enhance the protection of the fundamental right of 
        motherhood, including the condemnation of coercive population control 
        programs where expectant mothers are forced to undergo abortions or 
        sterilizations;
Whereas the Convention's agenda to promote abortion worldwide invades the laws 
        of countries that hold a religious or moral belief that abortion is the 
        destruction of innocent human life and that it subjects expectant 
        mothers to physical and emotional trauma;
Whereas the Convention seeks to supplant the primary care and nurturing provided 
        by stay-at-home mothers with institutionalized daycare facilities as 
        advocated in the Convention's August 12, 1997 Committee Report on 
        Slovenia, which stated that children cared for at home are deprived of 
        ``educational and social opportunities offered in formal daycare 
        institutions''; and
Whereas more than a hundred United States-based family, religious, and 
        educational organizations representing countless millions of Americans 
        strongly oppose United States ratification of the Convention on the 
        Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the tenets of the Convention on the Elimination of 
        Discrimination Against Women are incompatible with the 
        tradition and policy of the United States to uphold motherhood 
        and to regard motherhood with the highest degree of honor and 
        respect;
            (2) the Convention would create negative perceptions toward 
        motherhood; and
            (3) the Senate should not give its advice and consent to 
        ratification of the fundamentally flawed Convention on the 
        Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
                                 <all>
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