US Poised to Yank Funding from UN Population Fund over Abortion Claims
BY: MATTHEW LEE

The announcement, which could come as early as this week, will accompany the release of a report critical of UNFPA's activities in China that have drawn fire from conservative US lawmakers and anti-abortion activists, the officials said.

The State Department had been expected to make the announcement -- which will cancel 34 million dollars in UNFPA funding -- on July 15, but a senior department official said the timing had been slightly delayed.

"We're not ready to go on this for Monday," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The language is still being prepared and the lawyers are still going over it." "Still, the intention is to put out the report and the decision at the same time and that will be soon," the official said.

"It's a tough decision and one we'll be happy to explain when we announce it," the official said.

The official declined to comment on what the announcement would be or the contents of the report the department commissioned in May from a three-person panel that traveled to China that month to review the work of the UNFPA there.

Spokesmen for the White House and State Department declined to comment on the matter, saying they could not speak to the decision until after the announcement was made.

However, other officials familiar with the report's conclusions and the funding decision, said Washington would be withdrawing its support for the UNFPA.

One official said the report and the decision would deal a blow to US Secretary of State Colin Powell who, as a leading moderate in President George W. Bush's administrative, had fought to retain at least some of the money.

"Powell really got sandbagged on this one," the official said.

Another official said the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration -- which oversees the UNFPA money -- had already been told to begin "reprogramming" funds for the group.

The aim is to minimize the impact of the decision on Washington's support for family planning programs abroad which many US conservatives believe should be centered primarily on abstinence education.

"Domestic political concerns overrode our foreign policy interests," the official said.

The Bush administration has been coming under increasing pressure from anti-abortion groups -- one of its core constituencies -- to pull UNFPA funding.

Last month, suspicious of what they believed would be a less than critical appraisal from the State Department's review panel, a coalition of 140 activist groups urged Bush to uphold a temporary freeze on the money imposed in January and to be "very careful" about reviewing the team's findings.

In a June 20 letter to Bush, the coalition said Chinese officials could have concocted cover stories to head off allegations that the fund was implicated in enforcing China's "one child" policy.

"More than two dozen victims and witnesses said that coercion, only coercion and nothing but coercion, exists in this UNFPA county program in China," it said, presenting the results of a September 2001 investigation into the organizations activities in Guangdong Province.

UNFPA, a key source of funding to population control programs in developing countries, has denied funding abortions or coercive family planning practices in China.

It says the loss of the US funds will cause the deaths of thousands of women.

The 34 million dollars that Washington provides is enough to prevent two million unwanted pregnancies, nearly 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths, almost 60,000 cases of serious maternal illness and more than 77,000 infant and child deaths, according to UNFPA.

Bush has the power to reject funding for any organization found to support or take part in programs providing forced abortion or involuntary sterilization under a 1985 amendment to foreign appropriations legislation.

The Reagan and first Bush administration ruled UNFPA was ineligible for funding because of its projects in China, which has advocated the "one child" policy in a bid to stem uncontrolled growth in its vast population.

The Clinton administration allocated US funds to UNFPA throughout most of its eight years in office.

© Agence France Presse via PUSH

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