POLITICS PUT OVER WOMEN AND CHILDREN'S HEALTH
For the third consecutive year the Bush administration has decided not to
release $34 million appropriated by Congress to the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA). The administration claims that the funds are being
withheld because "the fund indirectly supports Chinese government programs
that force women to have abortions."[1] Although this explanation is
popular with Bush's conservative base, it is wholly unsupported by the
facts.
In 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell dispatched a team to China to
investigate whether the UNFPA was assisting the Chinese government's
coercive practices. The investigators reported that there was "no evidence
that the UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of
a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."[2] The
investigative team recommended "that funds allocated by Congress be
released to UNFPA."[3]
The 2003 State Department Report on Human Rights Practices found that, in
the 32 Chinese counties where they operated, the UNFPA "emphasized
education, improved reproductive health services, and economic development,
and they eliminated the target and quota systems for limiting births."[4]
The success of the UNFPA's effort prompted 800 other Chinese counties to
remove "the target and quota system and...[attempt] to replicate the UNFPA
project by emphasizing quality of care and informed choice of birth control
methods."
According to U.N. estimates, the $34 million in funds being withheld by the
Bush administration this year could have helped prevent as many as 2
million unwanted pregnancies, 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths and
over 77,000 infant and child deaths.[5]
Sources:
1. "Citing Chinese Abortions, U.S. Refuses to Fund U.N. Program," Los
Angeles Times, 7/17/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2103488&l=
46477.
2. "US again denies money to population fund," Boston Globe, 7/17/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2103488&l=46478.
3. "UNFPA Regrets U. S. Administration's Decision Not to Restore Funding,"
UNFPA, 7/16/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2103488&l=46479.
4. 2003 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, State Department,
2/25/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2103488&l=46480.
5. "UNFPA Regrets U. S. Administration's Decision Not to Restore Funding,"
UNFPA, 7/16/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2103488&l=46479.
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