On February 27, the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism held a hearing on U.S. funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Presiding Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) began the hearing by saying that the time has come “to set aside political differences and look at the millions of lives that can be saved by UNFPA.”
In his opening remarks, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) expressed his disappointment that no witnesses from UNFPA were present “to help shed light” on many of his concerns. He continued by acknowledging that his own daughter was adopted from China and that he is happy that her birth mother “wasn’t coerced into having an abortion or involuntary sterilization.”
In his testimony, Arthur E. Dewey of the Department of State noted that the United States “remains the largest bilateral donor of population assistance in the world,” as well as the largest bilateral donor to UNFPA, providing more than $610 million since UNFPA’s founding in 1968. He added that the Bush Administration’s “commitment to international family planning remains strong.”
While the President’s FY2003 budget proposal zeroes out UNFPA, $25 million would be reserved for the program under a separate account. In FY2002, Congress approved $34 million for the UNFPA; however, a 1986 law allows the President to withhold funds for any country or organization if the President certifies that the funds would be used for the performance of coerced abortions and involuntary sterilization. In January of this year, the President announced that he had placed a hold on the money allocated for UNFPA in FY2003, and the State Department has stated that a decision has not yet been made on whether to release the FY2002 funding.
Mr. Dewey concluded his remarks, saying that it is “incumbent upon us to look further into” the allegations of UNFPA’s involvement in coercive family planning practices in China.
The House International Relations Committee held a hearing in October 2001 to discuss whether China was continuing with its coercive population control policy. After the hearing, UNFPA asked former Ambassador of the Netherlands to NATO, Nicolas Biegman, to lead an independent, international review team to investigate these allegations.
Mr. Biegman testified at the Senate hearing that during their five-day investigation, he and three other members of the United Nations met with officials from UNFPA and the Chinese government, along with officials from the U. S. Embassy. They also visited seven family planning clinics, service centers, and hospitals in the county from which the allegations originated and another county that receives UNFPA funding. He stressed that the investigation found “absolutely no evidence that UNFPA supports coercive family planning practices in China or violates the human rights of Chinese people in any way.”
Disagreeing with Mr. Biegman, Josephine Guy said her findings showed that “coercive practices” still occur in China. In September 2001, Ms. Guy traveled to China, on behalf of the Population Research Institute, to interview women coerced into having abortions or sterilizations. Ms. Guy noted that according to these women, there is “no trace of voluntarism…there is only coercion, in abundant supply.” The women also said that this coercion takes place in a “county where UNFPA operates from within the Office of Family Planning.”
