PAI Applauds House Committee Vote in Support of UNFPA – PAI Deplores Campaign of "Fabrications & Distortions"

May 10, 2002

Washington, DC - Population Action International today released the following statement by its President, Amy Coen, praising the House Appropriations Committee for its efforts to release current year funds to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and describing the allegations against the international agency as a "campaign of fabrications and distortions."

"Last night the House Appropriations Committee took the first step toward forcing the President to release the $34 million U.S. contribution to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which has been blocked since the foreign aid bill was enacted in January. We trust that the full House will endorse this directive to the President when it considers the supplemental bill next week.

"The amount and the terms of the UNFPA contribution were painstakingly negotiated by Congress late last year, and the ongoing refusal of the President to release the funds is contrary to the will of Congress. Unfortunately, a campaign of fabrications and distortions by family planning opponents has persuaded the White House to withhold funds for UNFPA due to the agency's presence in China. The four-month-and-counting delay has served only to penalize all 140 other poor countries in need of UNFPA's help and to jeopardize the health of millions of women and children.

"On Sunday, a three-member team is being dispatched to China for two weeks to examine UNFPA's programs there. We have no knowledge of the personal views or credentials of the members of the team. PAI is confident, however, that if this fact-finding mission finds and reports the facts as they observe them on the ground, UNFPA will be found to be a force for positive change in China, just as a recent visit by British parliamentarians found.

"The Bush Administration has previously certified that UNFPA is in compliance with U.S. safeguards to ensure that government-supported programs supports are fully voluntary and comply with international standards of human rights. The President himself requested $25 million for UNFPA for the current fiscal year, and an additional $600,000 in emergency funding was allocated to UNFPA in November 2001 for health assistance for Afghan refugee women. Nothing has changed to call into question the wisdom of the Administration's past support for UNFPA.