Last July the U.S. House of Representatives voted 216-211 to deny funding to the United Nations Pouplation Fund on the grounds that its activities indirectly support China’s coercive one child policy.
In September the pro-abortion Catholices for a Free Choice sent nine investigators to China to investigate such charges. In its report, Cathlics for a Free Choice argues that coercive policies in China have declined in recent years and, in any event, the UNFPA criticizes such policies and does not actively assist them.
Yet the report also concedes that, at a minimum, China continues its highly coercive tax on those who violate its population goals. Specifiically, couples who have more than their allotted quota of children may be assessed a special tax equivalent to as much as three years’ worth of income.
Catholics for a Free Choice says that this tax is “mischaracterized” by anti-abortion groups and, besides, sometimes it isn’t even enforced!
The bottom line here is quite simple — China engages in coercive reproductive policies. Sending money to support family planning efforts there makes about as much sense as sending money to support physics programs in North Korea. By sending funds for non-coercive family planning, the United Nations Population Fund indirectly subsidizes China’s coerceive family planning efforts.
China should not receive a single cent of U.S. taxpayers money until it has renounced and abandoned coercive family planning methods.
Source:
Religious leaders visit China to investigate claims against UNFPA. U.N. Wire, September 4, 2003.