Posted on 05/09/2003 2:47:06 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - Critics of the U.N. Population Fund are assailing the House committee passage of an amendment that would restore funding to the beleaguered agency and reverse a Bush administration decision to withhold nearly $70 million over the past two years. Conservatives say the U.N. Population Fund condones forced abortion and sterilization in China and elsewhere.
Although the Democrat-sponsored amendment passed by a single vote Wednesday in the International Relations Committee, several Republicans who oppose it missed the meeting. And even though it was approved, conservatives are prepared for a spirited debate on the House floor.
In addition to funding the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) at $100 million over the next two years, the amendment also reverses long-standing U.S. policy related to coercive abortion. It wouldn't punish groups like the UNFPA unless they "directly support or participate in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."
Abortion critics assert that the new wording would weaken U.S. policy, known as the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, to such an extreme that it would be impossible to cut off funding to organizations that support coercive abortion.
The State Department, citing the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, concluded in an analysis this past year that the United States was precluded from funding the UNFPA as a result of its China program. Under the amendment, sponsored by Reps. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), that would change.
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, said the amendment lets the UNFPA off the hook despite its investment in programs that rely on coercion.
"It is despicable to me that proponents of this amendment are so extreme in their support for UNFPA that they are trying to weaken 17-year-old human rights law," Smith said of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment. "Instead of lowering the bar on human rights, they should be trying to get the UNFPA to increase its efforts to meet fundamental human rights standards."
Supporters of the UNFPA praised the committee's vote and expressed optimism that it would also pass on the House floor.
Population Connection, which has lobbied heavily for the Bush administration to restore the funding, hailed its passage. Brian Dixon, the group's director of government relations, said the UNFPA shouldn't be punished for its family planning program in China.
"This amendment just clarifies that we don't want to be funding organizations that are engaged in [coercive abortion] directly," Dixon said. "That doesn't mean we can't fund an organization that happens to be working in a country where those things might be going on."
Dixon acknowledged that China is no model for human rights, but he said the UNFPA is slowly making progress. Since its program began, Dixon said, China has dropped its birth quotas in 32 counties and allowed outsiders to investigate its practices.
"It's an unquestioned fact that if the UNFPA wasn't there, things for women in China would be worse," he said.
But Population Research Institute spokesman Scott Weinberg disputed Dixon's assessment.
He said China has made no progress and alleged that the UNFPA likely made the situation worse by funding China's practice of forced abortion.
"The UNFPA has to get out of China, Vietnam and North Korea, and they have to answer for charges of genocide in Peru," Weinberg said. "Until that happens, they're clearly in support of crimes against humanity, and they have to be brought before an international criminal court to answer for these charges."
The amendment is included in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which is expected to move to the floor sometime in the next few months.
Weinberg said there's little question the Kemp-Kasten Amendment will be restored and included in the budget bill, just as it has been since 1985.
E-mail a news tip to Robert B. Bluey.
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