US President George W Bush has refused to authorise US $34 million voted by Congress for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2002. The US State Department has announced that the funds "will be spent on population programs under USAID's Child Survival and Health Program Fund", subject to agreement from Congress.
The US decision is based on a campaign by anti-abortion lobbying groups in the USA, who allege that by working in China, the UNFPA is supporting coercive programmes of population control, including forced abortions.
The move appears, to Bush's critics, to demonstrate that his administration gives a higher priority to appeasing anti-abortion campaigners than to supporting effective programmes to protect women's health and prevent HIV and AIDS globally.
The UN agency rebuts these allegations, claiming that:
- US contributions to the UNFPA are already kept in a separate account from those of other countries so as to accommodate US wishes not to fund services providing safe abortions to women.
- Their activities in China are directed at assisting the Chinese authorities and health services in moving away from coercive policies, including a substantial contribution to securing a Chinese reponse to HIV/AIDS in the country; that the UNFPA does NOT support China's "one child" policy and works within a strict human rights framework there.
- An official US team which went to China to review the UNFPA's activities there reported that the allegations made against the agency in the US were unfounded.
- UNFPA operates projects that provide contraception and gynecological services, teen-pregnancy prevention and HIV/AIDS prevention in 142 countries.
- The $34 million from the United States would have allowed the agency to prevent 2 million unwanted pregnancies and more than 77,000 infant and child deaths, UNFPA estimates.
"We regret this decision by the Administration and hope that the United States will reconsider its stand and rejoin the community of nations working through UNFPA to save women's lives, to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to improve the quality of life for hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people," said Ms Thoraya Obaid, the Executive Director of UNFPA.
This is not the first time that US anti-abortion politics have led to withdrawals of international aid, to NGOs working to improve women's sexual and reproductive health. In the past, the European Union and other international donors have pledged to make up shortfalls that have come about in this way; it is possible that this will happen in this case too.
The UK contributes more than £15m to the UNFPA annually. The UK Department for International Development (DfID) was already the fourth largest donor to the UNFPA before this US decision was announced; if it is not reversed, then it is set to become the third largest donor.
The UNFPA has more information on their response to the US decision here, including details of how individuals can donate money to support its work.
The US Population Research Institute, which has been campaigning against US support for the UNFPA, has issued a statement in support of President Bush's decision here.