U.S. blocks funding to UNFPA for third consecutive Year by Caroline Preston U.N. Wire 9:03am 20th Jul, 2004   July 19, 2004    WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department said Friday that the United States has decided to withhold funding to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) for the third consecutive year because the agency indirectly supports coercive abortions in China, a charge UNFPA and outside supporters have repeatedly denied.    The announcement provoked ire among some U.S. lawmakers, U.N. officials and activists, who said the decision was politically motivated and a blow to women's rights and reproductive health worldwide. "They are putting millions of women and children at risk because of this decision," said U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who has led congressional efforts to restore funding for UNFPA.    The $34 million in withheld funds — 10 percent of the agency's budget — would have helped to prevent an estimated 2 million unwanted pregnancies, 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths and 77,000 infant and child deaths, according to UNFPA.    The State Department said in a statement that UNFPA's activities in China violated the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, a 1985 law that prevents U.S. foreign aid from going to programs that promote coercive abortions or forced sterilizations. But advocates of UNFPA called that rationale baseless, citing a 2002 State Department fact-finding mission that found no evidence linking the U.N. agency to coercive abortions.    Sarah Craven, chief of UNFPA's Washington office, said the agency's "express purpose" was to move China away from coercive policies such as quotas and penalties.  In the 32 counties where UNFPA operates, birth quotas had been lifted, abortion rates had dropped below U.S. rates, female sterilizations had decreased and infant mortality rates had also declined, she said. Craven added that the State Department's 2004 Human Rights report found that 800 counties in China had removed the target and quota system and "tried to implement the UNFPA model by emphasizing quality of care and informed choice of birth control methods."     State Department spokesman Richard Boucher acknowledged on Friday that the "aim of the U.N. Population Fund is to promote a transition to purely voluntary family planning in China," but he said the "circumstances of their operations are assisting" the Chinese government in managing its coercive policies.    The State Department said it would continue to work with UNFPA toward a "restructuring" of its work in China that would permit a future reinstatement of funds. The State Department also said that U.S. bilateral assistance to women and children's health exceeds that of any other country, with $429 million appropriated for reproductive health this year.      Critics charged, however, that the Bush administration was playing politics ahead of the November presidential election and demonstrating a lack of concern for women around the world. "It is a political decision.  I think it is pandering to the right-wing mullahs of this country," said Maloney.  "And I don't think women can handle much more of this president's 'compassionate conservatism.'" June Zeitlin, executive director of the Women's Environment and Development Organization, accused the president of "choosing ideology over facts."    Earlier this year, Maloney asked the Bush administration to support a bill that would have restricted all UNFPA funding to the U.N. agency's campaign to end obstetric fistula, a debilitating condition that affects 2 million women worldwide.  On Friday, she said she had received no response from the president.  "His alleged support for women's rights is shallow and insincere," Maloney said.    Tim Wirth, a former U.S. senator who now heads the United Nations Foundation, said the decision to block UNFPA funding had further "embarrassed" the United States and isolated it from the rest of the world.    UNFPA operates in 140 countries and is supported by 146 governments.  The United States is the only country that has withheld funding for nonbudgetary reasons, according to UNFPA. "There has been broad consensus across the world on UNFPA and its importance," Wirth said.  "The administration is disregarding it."
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