The United States this month announced it would withhold $34 million allocated to the United Nations Population Fund for the third year in a row.
Under the provisions that the UN Population Fund money is allocated, it cannot be given to the agency if the State Department determines that there is a direct link between the UNPF and China’s practice of coercive abortion as part of its one child policy.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said of the withheld funds,
These Chinese programs have penalties that amount to coercion. THerefore we feel, by funding these programs, we would be indirectly helping the Chinese to improve their management of programs that result in coercive abortion, and that’s prohibited by our law.
Feminist Majority Foundation president Eleanor Smeal said of the decision,
Today, the President once again chose ideology over women’s health and rights by denying funding to UNFPA. This decisio means that for the third year in a row, women in nearly 140 countries around the world will pay a price for the president’s decision to appeal to his domestic base.
Not surprisingly, the Feminist Majority Foundation didn’t have a single thing to say about China’s coercive one-child policy.
Sources:
US cuts UN funds in abortion row. Jill McGivering, The BBC, July 17, 2004.
U.S. Blocks Aid to U.N. Population Fund. Barry Schweid, Associated PRess, July 16, 2004.
State Department refuses to fund the UNFPA. Feminist Daily News Wire, July 16, 2004.