OBAMA Gives $50 Million to War Against Unborn

Obama Admin Sends UN Population Fund $50 Million, Abortion Backers Want More
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com EditorMarch 18, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The American economy is in turmoil but the Obama administration sent a $50 million check yesterday to the United Nations Population Fund. That's the pro-abortion group that has been accused of supporting and working in concert with Chinese family planning officials.

There, the Chinese population control program has relied on forced abortions, involuntary sterilizations and other human rights abuses to enforce its rule that most couples may have no more than one child.

The Bush administration had withheld the funds because of the UNFPA-China population control program ties, but Obama signed a bill reversing those limits and pro-life advocates failed to get the Senate to put them back in place.

The Obama administration move has pro-life advocates up in arms.

"Yesterday, for the first time in eight years, the State Department released $50 million to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization linked to China's one-child policy and coerced abortions," Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said.

Unsatisfied by the $50 million mark, House members, led by pro-abortion Rep. Louise Slaughter, are asking for even more money in the next budget Congress will consider.

In a letter to the chairman and ranking members of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, Slaughter and three other members of the House ask for an increase of $530 million for family planning efforts and a boost to $65 million for the UNFPA.

"We respectfully request that you increase international family planning assistance funding by $530 million from last year's level, including a total of $65 million for the United Nations Population Fund in the Fiscal Year 2010 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act," the letter says.

Perkins calls on Obama to say no.

"Gallup found that an overwhelming majority of Americans object to paying for Obama's new export--overseas abortion. He may not be able to stop AIG from exploiting taxpayers, but the President can certainly keep his party from giving family planning' groups a raise," he said.

Obama won't likely budget as he demonstrated his commitment to funding the controversial pro-abortion UN agency when he overturned the Mexico City Policy during his first week in office.

"I look forward to working with Congress to restore U.S. financial support for the U.N. Population Fund," Obama said in his executive order message in January.
"By resuming funding to UNFPA, the U.S. will be joining 180 other donor nations working collaboratively to reduce poverty, improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV/AIDS and provide family planning assistance to women in 154 countries," he added.

However, President Obama ignored the connection between the UNFPA and the Chinese forced-abortion program.

Following the governmental investigation, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had no doubt that the UNFPA was complicit in the population control program.

"I determined that UNFPA's support of, and involvement in, China's population-planning activities allowed the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion," he wrote.

The State Department investigation came after a groundbreaking probe led by the Population Research Institute.

Colin Mason, PRI’s media director, confirmed to LifeNews.com last November that it stands by its probe showing the UNFPA involved in the program.

"Our investigation remains valid," Mason said. "We put boots on the ground, and made the results available to anyone who wanted them. Those who would disregard our findings show an appalling lack of respect for human rights."

PRI's initial report, entitled "UNFPA, China, and Coercive Family Planning," is based on an investigation conducted by PRI researchers in China's Sihui County.

Relying on interviews with over two dozen victims and witnesses, the 2001 investigation found that coercive abortion and sterilization practices were taking place where the UNFPA had supposedly instituted a "client-centered and voluntary family planning program."

In fact, PRI's investigation discovered that the UNFPA shared an office with the very Chinese family planning officials who were carrying out forced abortions.

Related web sites:Population Research Institute - http://www.pop.orgPRI YouTube video about UNFPA - http://www.youtube.com/colinpri