Bush Administration's Decision To Withhold UNFPA Funding
--------------------------------------------------------
Detroit Free Press Publishes Editorial,
Two Letters to Editor on Bush Administration's Decision To With-
hold UNFPA Funding [Aug 06, 2004]
The Bush administration last month said that for the third con-
secutive year it will withhold $34 million in funding for the
United Nations Population Fund, saying that because the organi-
zation works in China, it supports the Chinese government's pol-
icy of coerced abortions to maintain a goal of one child per
family. The Bush administration in its decision cited the Kemp-
Kasten law, which requires funding to be blocked for agencies if
the president determines that a group "supports or participates
in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involun-
tary sterilization." UNFPA has spent approximately $3.5 million
in the past year for a pilot program in China to educate Chinese
women about HIV transmission and contraception (Kaiser Daily Re-
productive Health Report, 7/19). The Detroit Free Press recently
published an editorial on the decision and two letters to the
editor in response to the editorial. Summaries of the pieces ap-
pear below:
* Detroit Free Press: UNFPA is "about reproductive freedom, not
forcing abortions on women," and it is "simply untrue" that
UNFPA has helped to "fuel China's one-child policy of coercive
abortion," a Free Press editorial says. UNFPA helps women access
health care in "areas where clinics, much less hospitals, are
scarce," the editorial says, concluding that the Bush admini-
stration's policy will set back the goal of fighting HIV/AIDS
"[a]ll for a disingenuous victory in domestic abortion politics"
(Detroit Free Press, 7/20).
http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/eunfpa20_20040720.htm
* Arthur Dewey, Detroit Free Press: The Free Press editorial
"misrepresented" the Bush administration's policy on UNFPA fund-
ing, Dewey, assistant secretary of state population, refugees,
and migration at the State Department, writes in a Free Press
letter to the editor. The Bush administration is "firmly commit-
ted to protecting the health of women and children in the devel-
oping world," and the decision to withhold UNFPA funding was
"based on careful consideration of all relevant facts in light
of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment," Dewey writes. Dewey concludes
that UNFPA funding was withheld because the agency "continues
its support of, or involvement in, the management of China's co-
ercive birth limitation program" (Dewey, Detroit Free Press,
8/6).
* Frances Kissling, Detroit Free Press: UNFPA works with the
Chinese government in 32 counties to "move their policies and
practices away from coercion toward a voluntary approach that
respects human rights and human dignity," Kissling, president of
Catholics for a Free Choice, writes in a Free Press letter to
the editor. President Bush's policy is "not driven by real
events" and reflects its "fealty to his right-wing base at the
expense of the health and lives of the world's most vulnerable
women," Kissling concludes (Kissling, Detroit Free Press, 8/6).
ARthur Dewey's statement and Frances Kissling's reply on this
website:
http://www.freep.com/voices/letters/echina6_20040806.htm