November 28, 2001
Volume 3/ Number 31
Dear Colleague:
Last week, the entire $15.3 billion Foreign Aid bill stalled because of the controversy surrounding the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA). This week, our nation’s pro-family lobby is urging American tax payers to contact House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), 202-225-2976, [email protected], to request that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) not be rewarded for supporting forced abortion and sterilization in its county program in China.
Steven W. Mosher
President
Pro-Family Groups Condemn UNFPA
From the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:
In light of reports that the Foreign Operations Conference is considering increased funding of UNFPA, we would like to bring to your attention the position of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops against any funding of UNFPA: ‘Foreign Aid: Oppose legislation to provide U.S. aid to organizations that perform and promote abortion abroad and to organizations involved in coercive population programs’. (The USCCB Legislative Program for the 107th Congress, http://www.usccb.org/ogl/ pro
life.htm)
From Christian Coalition:
The UNFPA continues to praise China’s population control policies. Yet, just last month, the House International Relations Committee heard evidence of a woman having her home jackhammered and her relatives imprisoned in their efforts to spare her unborn child from becoming a victim of China’s forced abortion policy. And this was in a county where the UNFPA operates and in which the UNFPA claims that family planning operations are voluntary.
Mr. Speaker, for the sake of these women, we urge you to take whatever action is necessary to ensure that the UNFPA is not rewarded for its complicity in China’s population control policy by this increase in funding. (Letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, 11/15/01)
From the Family Research Council:
Americans DO NOT want their tax dollars to go to organizations that cooperate with and praise China’s coercive ‘one-child’ abortion policy. Recent evidence [obtained by PRI in China] shows that the UNFPA actually works out of the Office of Family Planning in certain counties within China. Rather than financially penalizing the UNFPA, the U.S.A. and every civilized nation ought to universally condemn the UNFPA for its complicity in grave human rights abuses and coercive abortion policies. (Alert,
11/14/01)
From the Southern Baptist Convention:
It has come to my attention that the conference committee on Foreign Operations appropriations will soon meet to settle differences between the House and Senate bills. I would like to urge you to support the House funding level for the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA.)
In light of recent evidence that the UNFPA is… funding coercive family planning policies in China, and in light of the many other needs in our nation since September 11th, any increase to UNFPA funding is unacceptable. (Letter from Shannon Royce, Director of Government Relations and Legislative Counsel, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention to the Honorable Tom DeLay, Majority Whip, November 13,
2001)
From Concerned Women for America:
The investigation by Population Research Institute shows that UNFPA works closely with the Chinese government’s Office of Family Planning in counties where women have been forcibly aborted,. We cannot ignore the testimony of women who describe family planning workers tracking them down, jailing family members, imposing massive fines, and destroying homes…
Concerned Women for America urges Congress and President Bush, who has been a champion of life, to stop the wasteful funding of such thoughtless, ideologically driven destruction and instead funnel true aid in the form of food, iron, vitamins, antibiotics and treatment for tuberculosis. (Concerned Women for America, “China’s Coerced Abortions Exposed,” Hearing to Reveal UNFPA’s Link to China’s Abuses of Women’s Rights, Forced Sterilizations, Press release, 17 October 2001)
