wfn.org | United Methodist board denounces family planning fund stop

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 24, 2002        News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202)
546-87227Washington     10-21-71B{321}

By Vince Isner*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - The social action arm of the United Methodist Church has
decried the Bush Administration's decision to withhold funding from the
United Nations Population Fund for 2002, calling it a politically motivated
act that serves to increase oppression, poverty and the spread of HIV/AIDS. 

"This decision will severely impact the well-being of thousands of women
around the world, will increase the number of abortions and the spread of
HIV/AIDS," said Jim Winkler, staff head of the Board of Church and Society.
"We view this as a frontal assault on women and the United Nations.  It is
unfortunate that the administration is caving into extremist forces in
society."
 
The U.S. Congress and President Bush approved an allocation of $34 million
to the U.N. fund in December. Shortly after the bill signing, some members
of Congress and the conservative Population Research Institute urged the
president to withhold the funding.  They asserted the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) supported practices in China that sometimes resulted
in forced abortion or sterilization.

In May, Bush dispatched a three-person investigative team to China that
found no evidence of UNFPA's complicity, according to a report released July
22 by the U.S Department of State. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State
Colin L. Powell, the team wrote, "We find no evidence that UNFPA has
knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of
coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in the [People's Republic of
China]." The letter advocated support for the release of the $34 million.  

However, in a July 21 letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the
Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Powell stated that "...UNFPA's support
of, and involvement in, China's population-planning activities allows the
Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive
abortion. Therefore, it is not permissible to continue funding UNFPA at this
time."
 
"The administration's decision would be understandable if proof of UNFPA's
complicity in forced abortions was found by the team, but it wasn't," said
Linda Bales, director of the Louise & Hugh Moore Population Project,
initiative of the Board of Church and Society.   

According to Bales, "the $34 million represents approximately 13 percent of
UNFPA's total budget. UNFPA predicts that this funding would prevent 800,000
abortions and the deaths of 4,700 pregnant mothers." 

"The people paying the price are those who are most vulnerable - women and
children," she said. "Rather than tolerating forced abortions, the UNFPA is
a force for change in nations that oppress women and force sterilization and
abortion.

"The services they provide reduce abortions and unplanned pregnancies and
prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS," she added, citing recent testimony given to
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Niek Biegman, former Dutch
Ambassador to NATO. 

Bales also noted that the Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved
$50 million for the fund in the 2003 fiscal year foreign operations
appropriations bill that will be considered by the full Senate.

Winkler said, "Obviously, this action only serves to further sever U.S. ties
with the United Nations, an entity that we [the United States] helped to
create and foster. In these days of increased tensions worldwide, shifting
populations and the continued discrimination and oppression of women and
girls, we, as a nation, are called to be a champion of human rights and safe
motherhood in partnership with the world community. 

 "The United Methodist Church, which is the president's denomination, is an
ardent supporter of the United Nations as a forum for mobilizing resources
and working cooperatively on the most critical issues faced in society and
does not support it being held hostage to funding decisions," Winkler
stated.  

The church's position on such issues is expressed by its highest legislative
body, the General Conference, in the form of The Book of Resolutions and the
Social Principles. In them, the church states its support of population
stability and its opposition to forced abortion or forced sterilization.

UNFPA itself states that it is 'the policy of the Fund...not to provide
assistance for abortion, abortion services, or abortion-related equipment
and supplies as a method of family planning." UNFPA spends a tiny portion of
its funds on its work in China. 

"Why penalize an entire agency serving as a force for good because of the
actions of only one of the countries within its scope?" asked Bales. "In
fact, U.S. funding to UNFPA in past years has not been spent in China but is
held in a separate account for work in other nations." 

# # #

* Isner is program director for communications for the General Board of
Church and Society.

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United Methodist News Service
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