Commentary by Austin Ruse
WASHINGTON, DC, March 20, 2009 (C-FAM) – Though not confirmed, pro-abortion groups are reporting that the United States (US) State Department has released $50 million to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), money that had been withheld for eight years by the Bush Administration because of UNFPA complicity in China’s forced abortion program. This week the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) praised President Barak Obama for the release of the funds and for living up to campaign promises.
Even if CRR is wrong, it is only for the moment. What is certain is that UNFPA will be re-funded, as money for UNFPA was included in the Omnibus Appropriations bill just passed by both houses of Congress. In order for UNFPA to be re-funded, however, the Congress had to come up with language that would place UNFPA outside consideration of what is known as Kemp-Kasten, which forbids US money from supporting groups complicit in forced abortions. Though Congress had appropriated money for UNFPA every year during the Bush years, it was contingent on the President certifying that UNFPA was not complicit in the Chinese one-child policy which has resulted in 50 million abortions, many of them forced.
The US and the United Kingdom both sent investigators to China in the 00’s to determine if UNFPA was complicit in the Chinese program. Both teams of investigators concluded that UNFPA did play a role in setting up the program, including technical assistance in devising computer tracking of Chinese women. The US team concluded that UNFPA did not knowingly support the Chinese program and urged the US to begin refunding the controversial agency. The State Department, however, determined that UNFPA was in violation of US law and funding was halted.
UNFPA advocates complained that withdrawal of US funds would result in the death of hundreds of thousands of women over the years. Putting aside the accuracy of such claims, in fact, the withdrawal of US funds resulted in a dramatic expansion in the UNFPA budget. Foreign governments were quick to replace withdrawn US funds many times over.
The UNFPA consistently denies it has anything to do with abortion, though evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. UNFPA lobbyists consistently haunt UN negotiations to ensure that abortion-supportive language is included in new documents, sometimes threatening governments with losing money if they disagree. The UNFPA intervened with Nicaragua’s legislature when it was considering banning abortion for any reason, a measure that eventually passed overwhelmingly. The UNFPA gave its annual highest award to the founder of China’s one-child policy and UNFPA personnel consistently praise the program.
UNFPA personnel have also been consistently hostile to Christian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that lobby the UN. During the Cairo+5 negotiations in 1999, then-UNFPA chief Nafis Sadik invited a number of Muslim Ambassadors to her office where she berated them for working so closely with Christian NGOs.
Pro-abortion Congressmen are not going to be satisfied with the resumption of $50 million annually. A coalition of Democratic Congressmen has begun lobbying their colleagues to increase UNFPA funding to $530 million.
(This article reprinted with permission from www.c-fam.org)