House rejects funds for U.N. Population Fund
- Jun 30, 2005 -
The U.S. House of Representatives turned back a June 16 attempt to reinstate funding for a controversial United Nations family planning fund linked to China’s coercive population control program.
The House voted 233-192 against an amendment by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D.-N.Y., to suspend federal law to allow funds for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Twenty-four Democrats joined 209 Republicans to defeat the proposed attachment to a spending bill.
Though the UNFPA has denied charges it supports coercive population control, a State Department investigative team in 2002 reported the UNFPA provided computers and vehicles to Chinese population-control offices. For many years, Chinese officials have forced women to have abortions and be sterilized to limit population growth. The enforcement of such a policy varies among provinces.
The Bush administration has refused to fund the UNFPA for the past three years because of its determination such a contribution would violate the 1985 Kemp-Kasten amendment, which prohibits family planning money from going to any entity that, as determined by the President, “supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”