For Immediate Release:	July 16, 2004
For More Information:	Tawana Jacobs, Population Action International, tjacobs@popact.org, 202-557-3422 or 240-893-2725
Sponsor Organization:	Population Action International
A Statement from Amy Coen, President/CEO, Population Action International
We were hoping that President Bush would prove advocates for international family planning and reproductive health programs wrong this year and approve U.S. funding for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA). The decision, though not unexpected, really demonstrates this administration’s penchant for putting politics ahead of people and plain common sense. Most importantly, it means that countless women in developing countries will be deprived of desperately needed reproductive health care – services that so many women in the Western world take for granted. It’s a travesty that the Bush administration didn’t follow in the steps of their British allies who just last week stepped forward to pledge $214 million to UNFPA and UNAIDS for HIV/AIDS and reproductive health initiatives in developing countries over the next four years. It’s nice to know that at least one of the world’s wealthiest nations understands that HIV/AIDS is a real reproductive health issue. As much time as the administration has spent during the past few weeks trying to promote the President’s Emergency Plan and all of the condoms they’re distributing, they still don’t want to face reality. More condoms are distributed at family planning and reproductive health clinics than anywhere else. Clinics in some of the countries hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic have been shut down because of a lack of funding or because they stood in violation of another Bush policy – the Global Gag Rule. By again invoking the Kemp-Kasten Amendment and parting ways with the U.S. Congress who approved $34 million in funding for UNFPA in FY2004, the president continues his usual pattern of saying one thing and doing another. His administration has promised previously to reprogram the funds to other family planning and reproductive health programs. It’s not happening. Funds are being diverted away to support other programs and women and girls are paying the price.