For Immediate Release:	September 16, 2005
For More Information:	Sarah Hemingway, Americans for UNFPA, shemingway@americansforunfpa.org, (212) 297-5207
Sponsor Organization:	Americans for UNFPA
STATEMENT BY AMERICANS FOR UNFPA
NEW YORK – The Bush Administration withheld funds today from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, weakening the U.S. position as one of the most well respected leaders in global women’s health. The State Department announced the decision in a letter to members of the Appropriations Committee, as President Bush left the UN World Summit in New York, which offered world leaders an opportunity to renew the commitments they made five years ago to end poverty. UNFPA's efforts to improve women's health and promote the rights of women are essential for achieving these goals. “The Bush Administration is waging a morally misguided battle against the very organization that prevents maternal mortality and promotes the rights of women around the world,” said Anika Rahman, President of Americans for UNFPA. While the U.S. Congress allocates $34 million annually to UNFPA, the Bush Administration has refused to release the money since 2002, denying critical funding to the world’s largest source of international assistance for the rights and health of women. The Bush Administration charges that UNFPA supports China’s coercive family planning programs yet a State Department team reported to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell on May 21, 2002: “We find no evidence that UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary stabilization in the [People’s Republic of China]…We therefore recommend that not more than $34 million, which has already been appropriated, be released to UNFPA.” UNFPA is an advocate for policy reform in China. On an ongoing basis, UNFPA urges and facilitates the Chinese government to conform to international human rights standards for family planning programs, to lift its birth limitation policy nationally, and respect the right of women to make their own decisions about contraception and childbearing. UNFPA has also strongly opposed the use of “social compensation fees.” - more - “UNFPA’s programs promote voluntary family planning and demonstrate exactly the kind of success Americans want to see,” said Anika Rahman. “In fact, in the 32 counties where UNFPA operates in China, women's access to a wide range of contraceptive options has increased, while the abortion rate has decreased. Americans would be horrified to know that the U.S. stands in the way of improving the life and health of women around the world.” In 1969, when UNFPA was founded, 10 percent of women in the world used modern contraception. Today 60 percent do. UNFPA’s work on the ground has led to a 30 percent increase in women’s access to emergency obstetric care in target areas of Nicaragua, a 30 percent decrease in female genital cutting in target areas of Uganda, the integration of voluntary HIV counseling and testing into all family planning services, and changes in the way emergency humanitarian assistance is structured so that women’s particular health and safety needs are considered. ### Americans for UNFPA is a non-profit 501c3 organization dedicated to building American support for the work of UNFPA and to restoring the United States’ moral and financial contribution to the organization. Please visit, http://www.americansforunfpa.org.