We know about the damage done in Uganda by the American Right. Now Mother Jones has a story about US Republican congressman Chris Smith who flew to Kenya–on taxpayers’ expense–recently to make sure a provision in the country’s new constitution that allows abortions in cases where the mother’s health is at risk, does not pass. Abortion is banned in Kenya:

Kenyan abortion restrictions go far beyond those in American law, and Kenya’s new constitution, approved overwhelmingly last August, codifies a ban on abortions in the country. But that’s not enough for Smith and US anti-abortion groups, who argue that the exception allowing for legal abortions to preserve the health of the mother “opens the door to abortion on demand.” … Smith wasn’t just meeting with Kenyan politicians and activists during his time in East Africa-he was actively politicking. On March 21, Smith spoke at an event on the new constitution sponsored by the Kenya Christian Professional Forum in Limuru, a town about 35 miles outside Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. A staffer for the US-based group Center for Reproductive Rights, which recently opened an office in Nairobi, took notes during the speech. In it, the congressman reportedly called for “a world free of abortion.” Smith also accused “pro-abortion NGOs” of having “hijacked” the maternal mortality issue in order to legalize the killing of the unborn, CRR says.

… The Kenyan episode isn’t the first time Smith has involved himself in the abortion policies of African countries. In 2005, Ethiopia changed its criminal code to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape or incest; where the health or life of the mother was at stake; when fetal abnormalities were apparent; for minors; and for women who have physical or mental disabilities. Smith wrote a letter to the Ethiopian Embassy opposing the change, and in a 2007 speech, Smith criticized Ethiopia’s revised statutes as “legalization of abortion on demand.”

… The changes to Kenya’s constitution have been a cause célèbre for American anti-abortion groups for over a year. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, has been among the most vocal opponents of the new constitution. Last year, ACLJ pledged to spend “tens of thousands of dollars” on the effort to defeat the constitution and even opened an office in Nairobi, the “East Africa Centre for Law and Justice,” in January 2010. “We’re looking long-term in Kenya because it’s such an influential country throughout Africa,” the group’s director of international operations, Jordan Sekulow, told Christianity Today.

… Abortion-rights advocates counter that access to abortions is very much a human rights and public health concern, particularly in Kenya, where 2,600 women die and another 21,000 are hospitalized each year due to complications from unsafe abortions …

Source.