Broad, bipartisan letter from Congress urges Bush Administration Funding for UNFPA

“If the Bush administration is truly antiabortion, it will not block the U.S. appropriation to the United Nations' family planning program. When family planning funds are denied, abortions are likely to increase.” --The Philadelphia Inquirer

February 1 – Adding to numerous other Congressional voices more than 125 Members of Congress – Republicans and Democrats alike – wrote to President Bush on January 30, urging him to fully fund the United Nations Population Fund in the current fiscal year. The Congressional letter, spearheaded by Congresswoman Nita Lowey, the ranking member on the Appropriation’s Committee’s Foreign Operations Subcommittee, urges the President to fulfill Congressional approval of $34 million for UNFPA.

UNFPA web site LATEST MEDIA COVERAGE Letters in favor of UNFPA funding Editorial Board Memo For more information: Sarah Craven, U.S. Committee for UNFPA

“As strong supporters of international family planning, we were pleased to endorse a bipartisan agreement to build on your Fiscal Year 2002 request for $25 million in US contributions to the UNFPA, providing a total of $34 million. The overwhelming majority of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle supported this increase, and the Foreign Operations funding bill passed the House of Representatives by a margin of 357-68. Congressional intent with regard to UNFPA funding is clear,” the Congressional members wrote.

The diverse, bipartisan group of signatories to the letter is consistent with broad consensus among the public outside the Beltway. From Tulsa and Trenton to Seattle and St. Petersburg, editorial writers are urging the President to uphold the carefully-crafted, bipartisan compromise reached by Congress to fund the world’s most important multilateral family planning effort. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that, “If the Bush administration is truly antiabortion, it will not block the U.S. appropriation to the United Nations' family planning program. When family planning funds are denied, abortions are likely to increase.”

The Congressional leaders wrote noted to President Bush that “the US recognized the UNFPA’s important contributions to ensuring the health of Afghan women, providing the organization with $600,000 in emergency funding to furnish emergency infant delivery kits and sanitary supplies for Afghan refugee women in Pakistan and throughout Central Asia.”

In his first budget, President Bush requested continued funding to UNFPA and Secretary of State Colin Powell has testified in support of UNFPA funding, calling the agency a key provider of family planning services around the world. The Congressional letter praises the Administration for its “strong record of support for the UNFPA.”

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