Feb 4 – President George W. Bush’s Fiscal Year 2003 Budget, released today, envisions a deep, 11% cut in international family planning programs. Last year, Congress appropriated $480.5 million for international family planning, including $34 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). President Bush’s fiscal 2003 budget would cut US international family planning funds to $425 million and envisions no funding for UNFPA, the world’s most far-reaching family planning agency.

The President’s 2003 budget proposes a $115 million increase in funding for the US Agency for International Development’s HIV/AIDS programs around the world. In addition, the Administration proposes a $120 million contribution to UNICEF, the UN’s advocate for children, and a modest $1 million contribution to UNIFEM, the UN fund for women.

The Administration’s decision to withhold funding for UNFPA represents a startling reversal not only of legislation passed unanimously in the US Senate and by a 3-to-1 margin in the House, but also of previous Administration policy.

In his first budget proposal to Congress, covering fiscal 2002, President Bush requested $25 million in funding for UNFPA. The Administration also approved the release of $21.5 million in fiscal 2001 funds for UNFPA after determining that UNFPA was in compliance with US law. In May, Secretary of State Colin Powell testified to Congress that UNFPA “provides critical population assistance to developing countries” (testimony before the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, May 10, 2001). Again in late 2001, the Administration signaled its support for UNFPA’s life-saving work by providing $600,000 in funding to support the agency’s work in support the health of Afghan refugees.

Despite Congressional approval of funding for UNFPA, the Bush Administration is currently deliberating whether to withhold fiscal 2002 funds for the agency. The loss of U.S. funding will have a devastating impact on UNFPA’s efforts to save women and children’s lives and provide family planning in more than 140 countries around the world, including in Afghanistan. Experts indicate that $34 million in family planning funding is enough to prevent 2 million unwanted pregnancies, nearly 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths; almost 60,000 maternal illnesses and more than 77,000 infant and child deaths.

President Bush’s decision to withhold last year’s UNFPA funds and to zero out the agency in its fiscal 2003 request is inconsistent with a broad swath of American opinion. Last week, more than 125 Members of Congress wrote the President in support of UNFPA funding. Similarly, an avalanche of editorials across the country have urged the President to fulfill Congressional intent.

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