House Committee Votes to Bar U.S. Funding of UNFPA
On October 5, 2011, in a party-line vote of 23-17, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to reject President Barack Obama’s request of $50 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Republican members of the committee argued that the UNFPA supports China’s “one child” policy, which critics claim forces abortions and sterilizations. The UNFPA’s steering document specifically excludes abortion as a method of family planning and a State Department fact finding mission to China in 2002 found “no evidence that UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in the PRC [People’s Republic of China].” The vote by the Foreign Affairs Committee comes on the heels of earlier votes to curb international family planning, including a vote to reinstate the “global gag rule.” The legislation now moves on to a vote in the full House of Representatives.
- Population Institute Releases Report on World Population at 7 Billion
- New "Global Population Speak Out" Campaign Launched
- Congressional Showdown Looms on International Family Planning Assistance
- Senate Rejects Effort to Re-impose Global "Gag Rule"
- House Committee Votes to Bar U.S. Funding of UNFPA
- Title X Family Planning Fund Once Again Facing the Chopping Block
- International leaders Call for Increased Funding for Maternal Health and Family Planning
