PHA-Exchange> Bush Administration's Decision To Withhold UNFPA Funding

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Detroit Free Press Publishes Editorial, Two Letters to
Editor on Bush Administration's Decision To Withhold
UNFPA Funding
[Aug 06, 2004]

       The Bush administration last month said that for
the third consecutive year it will withhold $34
million in funding for the United Nations Population
Fund, saying that because the organization works in
China, it supports the Chinese government's policy 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 involuntary
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 Reproductive 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 appear 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
administration'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 funding, 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 committed
to protecting the health of women and children in the
developing 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 coercive
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



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