Obama-supported U.N. Population Fund Not Preventing China's One-child Policy

Posted by Marilynn Hughes Mar 25, 2009

Front Royal, Va., Mar 25, 2009 (Catholic News Agency).- The United Nations Population Fund stands to receive $50 million in funding from President Obama’s Omnibus spending bill, but the Population Research Institute is reporting that a recently completed investigation in three Chinese counties shows that contrary to UNFPA claims, China’s one-child policy is actively being enforced.

Following a Population Research Institute (PRI) investigation of the UNFPA’s involvement in helping enforce China’s one-child policy in 2001, President George W. Bush decided to redirect $34 million from UNFPA’s family-planning programs and instead fund programs emphasizing child survival and anti-trafficking efforts.

Under former President Bush, the UNFPA was denied $235 million in funds but within weeks of President Obama taking office, $50 million was set aside for the previously implicated fund.

The UNFPA claims that it has played a role in turning the enforcement of China’s one-child policy into a "quality of care approach" that removes birth targets and quotas.

Seeking to verify the UNFPA’s assertion, PRI launched an on-the-ground investigation in three Chinese counties that the United Nations fund considers to be models for its claim.

PRI’s Colin Mason led the team that conducted the March 7-11 investigation, which found that the policy has not been relaxed and that "the coercive measures undertaken by the government are worse now than ever."

According to Mason, "when the actual conditions on the ground are observed, the UNFPA’s claim that it ‘played a catalytic role in introducing a voluntary reproductive health approach in China’ is patently absurd. The policy is just as coercive in these areas as anywhere else."

"Crippling fines, intense pressure to be sterilized, the flagrant display of quota information, and even the seizure of ‘illegal children’ by the government are commonplace," Mason continued. "The UNFPA insists that its presence has led to the removal of these measures. It has not."

"We at PRI ask the President to take a more critical approach in considering funding for the UNFPA," said Steven Mosher, PRI’s president. "United States law clearly dictates that tax dollars cannot fund forced abortion or coercive measures overseas. The President has shown no consideration for these laws, nor has he expressed any concern over the UNFPA’s clear and consistent involvement in human rights abuses."

Mason said that PRI stands ready to provide evidence to the Obama Administration about UNFPA’s involvement in China’s coercive policy.