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United Nations Population Fund

Excerpt from the full fact sheet:

Founded in 1969, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the largest internationally funded source of population assistance to developing countries. For nearly 40 years, UNFPA - which is funded entirely from voluntary contributions from participating nations - has provided more than $6 billion in aid to about 150 countries for voluntary family planning and maternal and child health care.

With its mission "to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDs, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect," UNFPA has:

  • Increased access to reproductive-health services, improved approaches to adolescent reproductive health, promoted safe pregnancy and delivery, reduced maternal mortality, provided emergency assistance in refugee situations, and prevented and treated HIV/AIDS.
  • Provided emergency reproductive-health kits - including equipment for safe deliveries and emergency contraceptives for rape victims - for Kosovar refugees, earthquake victims in Turkey, and women in East Timor.
  • Provided great assistance to a number of African countries to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.

Despite claims to the contrary, UNFPA does not support coercive abortion practices. In fact, UNFPA rigorously monitors projects to ensure compliance with international standards of voluntarism and informed choice. Yet, anti-choice lawmakers have spread misinformation about UNFPA, generally, and its China program, specifically, to deny U.S. funding to an organization that provides much needed family-planning services to developing countries around the world. Interestingly, even the Bush administration's own fact-finding team, which visited China in spring 2002, disagrees with the administration's position, finding no evidence of UNFPA wrongdoing, and recommending the immediate release of funding for UNFPA. Despite this unambiguous recommendation, the president revoked funding for UNFPA for straight seven years.

Download the fact sheet (PDF)

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