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Senate Approves $19.6B Foreign Aid Bill That Restores Funding to UNFPA
(Kaisernetwork) The Senate on Thursday approved a $19.6 billion fiscal year 2005 foreign aid bill, including funding for international family planning programs, the Washington Post reports (Morgan, Washington Post, 9/25). The bill would restore funding for the United Nations Population Fund and block the so-called "global gag rule" that prevents federal money from being used to support international organizations that provide abortion-related services, according to a Planned Parenthood Federation of America release (PPFA release, 9/24). In July, the Bush administration announced that it would withhold $34 million in funding for UNFPA for the third consecutive year, saying that because the organization works in China, it indirectly supports the Chinese government's policy of coerced abortions to maintain its one-child-per-family population policy. The Bush administration bars U.S. money from international groups that support abortion through direct services, counseling or lobbying activities under policies such as the so-called "Mexico City" policy. UNFPA had said that the U.S. funding could have prevented as many as two million unplanned pregnancies and nearly 800,000 abortions (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 9/3).
(c) 2004 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation
Source: Kaisernetwork
Publish Date: September 27, 2004
Online at: http://ifrl.org/IFRLDailyNews/040930/4
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