For Immediate Release:	July 22, 2002
For More Information:	Patrick Burns, National Audubon Society, pburns@audubon.org, (202) 861-2242
Sponsor Organization:	Audubon
According to press reports, the Bush Administration intends to unilaterally end U.S. funding for one of the world's most successful family planning programs - the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Congress appropriated $34 million in funds for the UNFPA last year, but a loophole in the law allows the President to spend less than the full amount appropriated by Congress. Now the Administration appears ready to use this loophole to scrap U.S funding for the UNFPA, arguing that the UNFPA is aiding and abetting China's "one-child" policy. In fact, according to press reports, the Administration's own fact-finding team sent to China earlier this year found that the UNFPA's work in China was above-board and exemplary. So too did a British fact-finding team that went to China in April. That team, headed by Edward Leigh, a conservative Member of Parliament and vocal abortion opponent, said the UNFPA was spearheading the effort to convince the Chinese Government to drops its one-child policy entirely. The UNFPA does not fund abortion services anywhere in the world. Despite this, the Bush Administration seems poised to cut off all funding to the United Nations Population Fund. If this happens, it will mean no U.S. funding will go to support UNFPA contraception and health education programs operating in over 140 countries around the world. These programs are vital to slowing the speed of world population growth -- the driving force behind so much environmental destruction. "It's hard to imagine a more short-sighted, anti-environment policy," said Bob Perciasepe, Audubon's Senior Vice President for public policy. "Demographers project that we will add more people to the world's population in the next 50 years than we did in the last 70 years. If this happens, much of the natural world we treasure will be pushed past the edge." "U.S. contributions to the UNFPA support basic contraception delivery in the developing world which helps to slow population growth and eases pressure on the environment worldwide," said Perciasepe. "How can the Administration be against this?" "Human population growth is the taproot of environmental destruction. By zeroing out funding for the United Nations Population Fund, the Bush Administration would ensure that the global environmental safety net will continue to unravel." Supporters of international family planning in Congress, backed by key environmental groups including Audubon, the Sierra Club, and the National Wildlife Federation, are expected to push for substantial increases in family planning funding next year in order to compensate for the Bush Administration's cuts to the UNFPA. Audubon notes that international family planning funding would need to rise from its current level of $446.5 million a year (FY2003) to $675 million a year, simply to return to 1995 levels as adjusted for inflation. For more information on Audubon's population program, see: http://www.audubonpopulation.org />