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US Bishops Urge Halt to Attempt to Renew US Funding Pro-Abortion UNFPA

No Action Planned by Canadian Bishops Re: Canada’s UNFPA Support

WASHINGTON, October 4, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops International Policy Committee issued a statement demanding that the US government not allow a renewal of funding for the abortion promoting United Nations Population Fund.

The USCCB in a media release said, “We strongly oppose language included in Title III of the Senate-passed bill that would weaken the Kemp-Kasten amendment by narrowing the terms under which UNFPA can be declared ineligible for U.S. funding.”

The USCCB concludes, “We urge conferees to fully reinstate the Kemp-Kasten policy against funding organizations involved in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization. Congress should not earmark funds for UNFPA, whose support for the coercive population program in the People’s Republic of China has rendered it ineligible for U.S. funds in recent years.”

When US funding for UNFPA was cut in 2002, abortion-friendly nations, Canada prominent among them, vowed to make up the difference. According to the UNFPA website, the Canadian contribution in 2004 totaled US $11,951,351 in direct funding and is listed tenth in the organization’s list of top 20 donors.

In Canada, pro-life Catholics have repeatedly urged the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) to condemn unambiguously the population control movement including the UNFPA. Now would seem to be a perfect opportunity for the CCCB to speak out in solidarity with their US counterparts. There has been recent media attention on China’s continued violations of human rights including forced abortion and the brutal suppression of religious freedoms, the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao in September, and the refusal of the Chinese government to allow four Catholic bishops to attend the Rome Synod this month.

The spokesman for the CCCB, however, has indicated the organization currently has nothing planned to address the China issue. “The position of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on abortion is clear and has been reiterated many times,” said CCCB spokesman, Sylvain Salvas. When LifeSiteNews.com asked if the CCCB had any plans to issue a similar demand that the Canadian government stop funding the UN’s abortion provider Salvas said, “Not so far.”

Canadian Catholic faithful have already been waiting for some time for an unequivocal denouncement of the UN’s population policies. In 2000, the CCCB, through a number of official bodies, the Catholic Women's League (CWL), the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP), and the Canadian Religious Conference (CRC) lent its support of the pro-abortion, pro-gay International March of Women donating Cn. $135,000. The bishops’ support was only dropped after Canadian and international pro-life groups exerted public pressure.

Even as the CCODP announced its severing of ties with the March, it at the same time indicated how “proud” CCODP was “to have supported the World March of Women.”

Jim Hughes, Vice-President of the International Right to Life Committee at the time called the CCCB endorsement of the March “scandalous.” No apology to pro-life workers or the Catholic faithful was ever forthcoming for the CCCB’s endorsement of the March. However, a number of prominent Canadian bishops publicly expressed their disagreement with the CCODP and CCCB support for the March of Women.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
March of Women information page:
http://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/womens_march/

Development and Peace Forced to Abandon March of Women
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/feb/01021201.html

Bishop Explains Limits of CCCB Endorsement of March of Women
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/jun/00062801.html

Vatican withdraws symbolic UNICEF contribution
http://www.lifesite.net/waronfamily/unicef/vatican1196.html

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