April 25, 2007

European Members of World Bank Spurn Changes to Family-Planning Policy

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The Wall Street Journal reports today that, in a closed meeting yesterday at the World Bank, European members objected to a Washington-supported proposal to change the bank’s family-planning policy, which would put in place age restrictions on family-planning assistance, including abortions. Cameron wrote a few weeks ago about Wolfowitz’ denial of any changes to its family-planning policy, one that has long been an integral part of the bank’s development strategy. The former Iraq war architect said, in response to accusations, “Let me make it very clear. Our policy hasn’t changed.” But the Government Accountability Project found documents that contradict his statement.

Wolfowitz’ transgressions, past and present, are not making him any friends. Aside from the European members who “revolted” against the family-planning policy amendment, “rank-and-file” employees are wearing blue ribbons (good-governance ribbons) to signify that they don’t trust him. Well, this is not news to us. Mother Jones hasn’t trusted Wolfowitz for awhile. Here are a few of our reasons why.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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