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Bush Administration Blocks $25M for UNFPA, Says Funds Would Be Used To Support Coerced Abortions in China
(Kaisernetwork) The Bush administration on Friday announced that it will withhold $25 million and redirect $9 million in funding that Congress allocated for the United Nations Population Fund, saying that the agency's work supports coercive abortions in China, Reuters/Philadelphia Inquirer reports (Reuters/Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/2). In July, the Bush administration announced that it would withhold 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. funding for international groups that support abortion through direct services, counseling or lobbying activities under policies such as the so-called "Mexico City" policy (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 9/27). The Bush administration has redirected $9 million of the $34 million appropriated by Congress for UNFPA to a reproductive health program operated by the USAID, according to Reuters/Inquirer.
UNFPA Response
UNFPA, which works in 140 countries, says that none of its activities support coerced abortions, according to Reuters/Inquirer. In addition, UNFPA has said that no U.S. funding would go toward the agency's work in China. Sarah Craven -- chief of UNFPA's Washington, D.C., office -- said that the agency currently operates a $3 million program in China aimed at increasing contraceptive use and reducing the abortion rate. She said that China's abortion rate has declined from 24% to 10% since the program started. UNFPA says that U.S. funding could have helped prevent 1.5 million unintended pregnancies, 588,000 abortions, 3,500 maternal deaths and 57,000 infant and child deaths worldwide. The money blocked by the Bush administration represents about 11% of the agency's $300 million budget, according to Craven (Reuters/Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/2).
(c) 2004 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation
Source: Kaisernetwork
Publish Date: October 4, 2004
Online at: http://ifrl.org/IFRLDailyNews/041004/3
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