Marco Rubio says UN has ‘lost its purpose,’ US won’t fund left-wing agendas

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated this month that the United Nations (UN) has “lost its purpose” while detailing the United States’ efforts to work within the system to push reforms to the international body, achieve geopolitical objectives, and direct monetary aid to places of genuine need rather than left-wing agenda items.

During a recent congressional hearing, Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee asked the secretary point-blank, “Why is the U.S. still a member of the United Nations?”

“The United Nations is of course a very frustrating thing for us, primarily because it’s been unable to intervene or play a constructive role in most of the major crisises (sic) around the world,” Rubio began. “It’s lost its purpose, it’s lost its mission, I think our UN mission is doing a very good job of driving substantial reforms at the UN and using our fees as leverage to achieve those reforms.”

Rubio went on to discuss instances of using the UN “where possible as a viable forum in which to solve problems,” such as getting partner nations to contribute money and soldiers to the Haiti Gang Suppression Force.

“And there are organizations in the UN that we’ve partnered with,” he continued. “We’ve been able to partner with them on making contributions to humanitarian relief around the world, and we’ve actually struck a pretty good deal with them, in which we can ensure that that money’s gonna be spent in a way that furthers our national interest, not go to fund the NGO-industrial complex, but also provide critical aid to areas that badly need it.” He added that under the Trump administration “the number of puppet shows and all these other stupid things that we’re spending money on is going to be zero.”

“So there’s been some utility with some of it, but the UN is in need of dramatic reform, and we intend to continue to use our fees that they claim we owe as leverage on them,” the secretary concluded.

As LifeSiteNews has covered, the UN has long promoted far-left agendas such as abortion-on-demand. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has given money to pro-abortion group Ipas to facilitate abortions and abortion training in Bangladesh refugee camps, and a relationship with the organization that continued at least into 2022. The Fund’s UNFPA Supplies Partnership procurement platform supplies abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol as well as manual vacuum aspirators. The Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) it assists with implementing includes so-called “safe abortion care” among its services. The UNFPA added abortion as a component of “sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights” in the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals in 2020.

The Trump administration has withdrawn the United States from dozens of left-wing international organizations, including the UNFPA; reinstated the Mexico City Policy that forbids non-governmental organizations from using taxpayer dollars for elective abortions abroad; and cut millions in pro-abortion subsidies by freezing U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending.