UNFPA Seeks Drinking Friends to Fund Forced Abortion

November 26, 2002

Volume 4/ Number 30

Dear Colleague:

Stung by the $34 million U.S. cut to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), abortion activists meet in Washington, DC next week to drink tequila and salute Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney for her support of forced abortion. For some, like Rep. Maloney, the glass is always half-empty. PRI takes a more sober view. For us, the UNFPA funding cut was a strong show of support for victims of forced abortion in China and a first step towards turning China away from its coercive one-child policy. To use the words of Jimmy Buffet, UNFPA and friends are wastin’ away in Margaritaville.

Steven W. Mosher

President 

UNFPA Seeks Drinking Friends to Fund Forced Abortion

Pro-life sidewalk activist groups in the Washington, DC who are interested in “easy picketing” won’t want to miss “The 34 Million Friends Campaign,” to be held Tuesday, December 3, 2002, at the Atrium, located at 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC from 6-8 p.m.(1)

The 34 Million Friends Campaign seeks to raise money for the UN Population Fund to offset the $34 million cut from UNFPA’s budget by the Bush administration because of UNFPA’s support of forced abortion in China. At the December 3 event, for a contribution of $1 or more, donors will receive a free margarita.(3)

The campaign is off to a rocky start. As of November 22, 2002, only $101,119.90 had been raised, leaving $33,898,880.10 to go.(2)

Sponsors of the event claim that $34 million for UNFPA could save the lives of 4,700 women and 77,000 infants and children.(4) This claim is based on the questionable premise that you can save lives by preventing babies from being born.

But if we want to save lives, there are far better ways to go about it: For the price of one margarita at one dollar at this UNFPA event, the lives of eight children could be saved with oral re-hydration therapy. If the entire $34 million were spent on basic child re-hydration programs, millions upon millions of children would be saved. If it were spent on child immunization, $34 million could save the lives of about 2 million children. If it was spent on basic health care for pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, malaria, $34 million could save the lives of almost 100 million children. For attended birth, $34 million could help 3-4 million women.(5) The event is being sponsored by the following abortion groups:

U.S. Committee for UNFPA: This is a UNFPA-funded DC lobbying group whose mission is to obtain funding for UNFPA. A spokesperson for this group recently claimed that if UNFPA discovered a case of forced abortion in China, UNFPA would pull out of China.(6) However, the U.S. State Department discovered coerced abortion in counties where UNFPA is active, and found that UNFPA supports this coercion.(7) But UNFPA is expanding its program in China.(8)

Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP): With offices based in New York City and Washington, DC, CRLP is dedicated to promoting abortion in the courts and in Congress. CRLP regards abortion as a basic human

right.(9)

Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC): A media group dedicated to promoting, among other extreme liberal causes, abortion rights. CCMC manages PLANetWIRE.org, which denies that UNFPA supports abortion, despite first-hand evidence showing that UNFPA in fact support forced

abortion.(10)

National Wildlife Federation (NWF): This DC-based group promotes international population control and abortion rights, and carries out “national litigation and strategies to save endangered species and animals.” NWF claims that: “more people, taking up more space, needing more natural resources, and engaging in ever-growing material consumption, create profound challenges for our ability to protect the resources on which all life depends.”(11)

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA): America’s largest and most well-funded promoter and provider of abortion. In 2000, 197,070 abortions were performed in Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide.(12)

Population Action International (PAI): Dedicated to promoting “universal access to family planning” and claims that pro-life policies undermine U.S. and international policy.(13)

Population Connection (formerly known as Zero Population Growth): Promotes abortion as a basic right. In it’s 2002 Congressional Report Card, Pro-Life Members of Congress, including House and Senate Republican Leaders, receive negative marks across the boards. Pro-abortion Members such as Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Tom Daschle (D-SD), Hilary Clinton (D-NY), Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) receive unanimously positive grades.(14)

The Population Institute: Dedicated to reducing the population growth and to trumpeting the myth of overpopulation. “Overpopulation is not a distant issue,” The Population Institute claims. The “overwhelming problems [of overpopulation] are upon us.”(15) It supports overturning pro-life laws in Peru, and increased funding for abortion and population control

programs,(16) especially UNFPA—even though UNFPA supports forced abortion in China.

The Sierra Club: “The Sierra Club’s Global Population and Environment Program seeks to protect the global environment and preserve natural resources for future generations by slowing population growth,” and by promoting domestic and international “family planning programs and reproductive health services [abortion].”(17) Sierra also supports the CEDAW treaty (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) and the UN, which seeks to legalize

prostitution.(18)

They’ll all be wastin’ away in Margaritaville on December 3, searching for their lost $34 million. Pro-life picketers should organize a welcoming committee.

Endnotes

1. Saving Women’s Lives: 34 Million Friends Campaign, www.savingwomenslives.org/friends.htm

2. UNFPA, “UNFPA Thanks our 34 Million Friends,” http://www.unfpa.org/support/34million.htm

3. Saving Women’s Lives.

4. Ibid.

5. See: PRI Weekly Briefing, “How to Save Lives with $34 million,” August 28, 2002, Vol. 4, No. 20; https://www.pop.org/briefings/wb082802.htm

6. Knight Ridder News Service, “Small Advocacy Group Influences American Policy,” September 19, 2002. 7. “Analysis of Determination that Kemp-Kasten Amendment Precludes Further Funding to UNFPA under Pub. L. 107-115,” Attachment to letter from Colin Powell, The Secretary of State to Sen. Patrick L. Leahy, Chairman, Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Committee on Appropriations, July 21, 2002. 8. State Family Planning Commission of China, “Population Prize Award Ceremony, Speech by Nafis Sadik,” January 12, 2002; http://www.sfpc.gov.cn/EN/enews20020114-2.htm .

9. CRLP, “Priority Issues: abortion,” www.crlp.org/pri_abortion.html

10. PLANetWIRE.org, “FACT SHEET: The United Nations Population Fund,” www.planetwire.org/wrap/files.fcgi/2116_UNFPAChina.htm

11. National Wildlife Federation, www.wnf.org

12. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, “Anti-choice Claims About Abortion and Breast Cancer,” www.plannedparenthood.org/…/factcancer022800.html

13. Population Action International, “About PAI: What we do,” http://www.populationaction.org/about/index.htm ; “Why the Global Gag Rule Undermines U.S. Foreign Policy, 8 Aug 2002. 14. Population Connection, “2002 Congressional Report Card.”

15. The Population Institute, www.populationinstitute.org ; www.populationinstitute.org/teampublish/71_361-1093.cfm

16. Ibid.

17. The Sierra Club, “Global Population and Environment,” www.sierraclub.org/population/index.asp

18. Ibid.


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