FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 4, 2017
Contact: Nicole Stacy, [email protected], 202-223-8073
UNPFA has Long Supported Chinese Government’s Coercive Abortion Policies
Washington, D.C. – Today, the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) celebrated President Trump’s invoking of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment to cut off U.S. taxpayer funding of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The Kemp-Kasten Amendment gives the President the authority to determine whether an organization should be de-funded because it “supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.” The funds are to be made available for maternal health and other initiatives.
“The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has a long history of supporting China’s oppressive population control activities, including forced abortions,” said Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser. “We should all be able to agree that forced abortions are a horrific violation of human rights. It is sickening to think of our tax dollars supporting such abuse of women and children. We commend President Trump for standing up for women and protecting taxpayers from funding forced abortions.”
UNFPA has a long history of support for China’s population control activities. In 1999 UNFPA representative Sven Burmester said, “China has had the most successful family planning policy in the history of mankind in terms of quantity and with that, China has done mankind a favor.” UNFPA’s current China program continues to support the Chinese government’s population control program. Despite China’s continued sustained human rights abuses in the form of this coercive birth limitation policy, UNFPA continues to partner with the very agency that enforces the policy, the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC).
According to the determination released today, UNFPA put together their program in “close consultation with the [Chinese] Government” and calls for implementation through government agencies. Specifically, “the NHFPC, which is responsible for implementing and enforcing China’s program of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization, appears in [the current UNFPA China program] as a UNFPA partner in anticipated family planning-related outcomes.”
For these reasons, the State Department determined “[b]y implementing a portion of its family planning program in partnership with that government entity, UNFPA provides support for the NHFPC’s implementation of China’s family planning policies, which includes coercive elements.
China recently announced a two-child policy, billed as a loosening of the one-child policy. However, both the State Department and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China document continued oppressive coercion including steep fines for unpermitted births and coerced abortion. According to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, “[o]fficials continue to enforce compliance with population planning targets using methods including heavy fines, job termination, arbitrary detention, and coerced abortion.”
At the start of his presidency, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Memorandum to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which stops U.S. taxpayer funding of the abortion industry overseas. The Mexico City Policy does not reduce foreign assistance, but ensures that U.S. international aid partners act consistently to save lives, rather than promoting and performing abortion.
President Trump has made four specific commitments to the pro-life movement, including reallocating Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding to comprehensive, whole-woman health care centers.
Susan B. Anthony List and its connected super PAC, Women Speak Out spent more than $18 million in the 2016 election cycle, knocking on more than 1.1 million doors in battleground states to defeat Hillary Clinton and maintain a pro-life Senate. SBA List is dedicated to pursuing policies and electing candidates who will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List emphasizes the education, promotion, mobilization, and election of pro-life women. The SBA List is a network of more than 465,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.
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