Wednesday, July 2, 2008

UNPFA Loses $235 Million Due to Pro-Life Group's Efforts

FRONT ROYAL, Va., July 2 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Bush administration has once again withheld nearly $40 million from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), marking the seventh consecutive year that the U.S. government has refused the organization. The Population Research Institute applauds this decision, which honors the Kemp-Kasten amendment of 1985 forbidding tax dollars from going to programs of forced abortion.

The groundwork for this decision was laid by the Population Research Institute, headed by Steven W. Mosher, which has sent teams of investigators to China over the years. These investigations have found that the UNFPA was deeply involved in programs of forced abortion and coercive sterilization in that country. The evidence presented to the U.S. Congress and the White House, left no doubt that the UNFPA was operating in China in violations of the Kemp- Kasten Amendment.

Reacting to PRI's findings, President Bush in 2001 decided to redirect $34 million away from the UNFPA's coercive family-planning programs into child survival programs, anti- trafficking programs, and other programs. The UNFPA's subsequent efforts to cover- up its involvement in China, have been to no avail. No U.S. population funds have gone to the UNFPA for the past seven years, costing the organization a total of $235 million.

"The evidence demonstrates that the UNFPA continues to aid and abet China's barbaric one-child policy," says PRI's President Steven Mosher. "It doesn't deserve one penny of U.S. money."

Mosher is the author of the newly published Population Control--Real Costs, Illusory Benefits, which documents the undeclared war that the Chinese government has carried out on its own population. His book is available at PRI's web site: www.pop.org, and at bookstores everywhere.

The Population Research Institute (PRI) was founded in 1989 by Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, PhD and is dedicated to: (1) ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning", (2) opposing outdated social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of overpopulation, (3) informing the public about the social and economic benefits of moderate population growth, and (4) promoting pro- natal and pro-family attitudes and policies worldwide. Steven Mosher is the author of numerous books, including A Mother's Ordeal, available in 11 languages.