United States administration to withhold aid to UNFPA

For the fourth year in a row, United States of America President George W. Bush has decided not to contribute to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), providing 25 million USD of the 34 million USD that Congress had earmarked for the Fund to the child survival and health account of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
In a letter from the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns to Congress, the administration said it had determined that UNFPA’s support for China’s population programme “facilitates (its) government’s coercive abortion programme”, thus violating a 20-year-old law that bans the use of United States aid to finance or support abortions overseas.
As in previous years, both UNFPA and United States population groups denounced the decision, coming at a time when world leaders at the World Summit are stressing the need to act together on global concerns.
“This decision is disheartening because it contradicts clear evidence that UNFPA works hard to end coercion by proving the efficacy and superiority of the voluntary approach to family planning over any other alternative”, said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA’s Executive Director. “We receive funding from 166 nations that believe in strengthening UNFPA’s role as a leading voice for human rights in family planning, safe motherhood and AIDS prevention”.
“I hope the United States will rejoin the family of nations that support our multilateral work to eliminate maternal deaths, prevent HIV/AIDS, empower women and reduce poverty”, Ms. Obaid said.
(Sources: IPS News, 16 September via news@ippf.org and UNFPA press release, 16 September)