US Cuts UN Funding Over Forced Abortion

12.04.2017

The US government has cut off all funding for the United Nations Population Fund, over the agency’s support for forced abortion. In a letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, the State Department said it was dropping the funding because the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) “supports, or participates in the management of, a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”

“This determination was made based on the fact that China’s family planning policies still involve the use of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilisation, and UNFPA partners on family planning activities with the Chinese government agency responsible for these coercive policies,” according to the State Department.

The cut is President Donald Trump’s first move to curtail funding for the United Nations and is likely to raise further questions about how deep those cuts will eventually go throughout the organization, where the United States is the top donor. The United States was the fourth-largest voluntary donor to UNFPA in 2015, giving $75 million in core budget and earmarked contributions.

In a statement on its website, UNFPA said it regrets the US decision to end funding, which it said is based on an “erroneous claim” that the agency supports coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in China.

“We are thrilled that the US is no longer funding forced abortion and involuntary sterilization in China,” said Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. “The blood of Chinese women and babies will no longer be on our hands...I have consistently advocated for the defunding of UNFPA over the years, most recently just a couple of weeks ago at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Last month, I also briefed the State Department on continuing coercion, including forced abortion, under China’s Two-Child Policy.”

“The UN Population Fund does not deserve one dime of US taxpayers’ money because it’s involved in coercive family planning programmes in a number of countries around the world,” Steve Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute, told LifeSiteNews. He said China’s coercive family planning programme is the most well-known, but the UNFPA collaborates with similar ones in Vietnam and North Korea.

“In North Korea, the UN Population Fund has offices and is encouraging these brutal, dictatorial regimes to drive down their birthrate by forced abortion and forced sterilization policies,” said Mosher.

Now, $32.5 million, instead of going to the UNFPA, will go to a US Agency for International Development (USAID) account for “family planning and reproductive health.”

Reuters. April 3. LifeSiteNews. April 4.