Group Tied to China's Coercive One-Child Policy to Receive Taxpayer Funds

The Obama administration announced last week that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is receiving $50 million in U.S. funding, despite evidence tying the group to forced and coerced abortion in China.

The Bush administration withdrew funds for the organization after government investigators said the group worked side-by-side with population control officials in China and even shared office space with them. Since Obama's election, abortion advocacy groups such as Planned Parenthood had been urging the new president to restore taxpayer funding to UNFPA.

Pro-life and human rights advocates are worried by the move, saying China's one-child program has been rife with abuses such as forced abortions and forced sterilizations, using economic and other pressures to force families to consent to the policy, and imprisoning those working against the program. UNFPA has defended their role in China by claiming that they are working with Chinese officials to remove coercive measures from their program.

However, the Population Research Institute (PRI) says an investigation in early March of three “model counties” where UNFPA operates, and where the group says coercive measures have been relaxed, found that the one-child policy has not been scaled back. In fact, PRI says, “in some ways, the coercive measures taken by the government are worse now then ever.”

According to Colin Mason of PRI, who headed up the investigation, "when the actual conditions on the ground are observed, the UNFPA's claim that it 'played a catalytic role in introducing a voluntary reproductive health approach in China' is patently absurd. The policy is just as coercive in these areas as anywhere else."

"Crippling fines, intense pressure to be sterilized, the flagrant display of quota information, and even the seizure of 'illegal children' by the government are commonplace," Mason added. "The UNFPA insists that its presence has led to the removal of these measures. It has not."

Despite such evidence, however, some members of Congress are asking for more funds for UNFPA. LifeNews.com has reported that four members of Congress sent a letter to the Foreign Operations Subcommittee asking for a $15 million dollar funding increase for UNFPA and a $535 million increase for "family planning" money overall. Such money could go to groups that promote and perform abortions overseas, as the Obama administration overturned a previous executive order barring taxpayer funding for such groups.

As the Elliot Institute has repeatedly noted, women are frequently pushed, coerced, pressured or forced into unwanted abortions and abortion has been linked to increased psychological and physical harm for women, so such money is likely to cause greater harm for women and their families throughout the world.