House okays $330 million for population

A total of $330 million for international population assistance has been approved by the US House of Representatives in the foreign operations appropriations bill for fiscal 1993. The legislation, which includes $20 million for the UNFPA, is expected to be considered by the Senate in the late summer or early autumn. The bill stipulated that the amount earmarked for UNFPA must be used solely for the provision of FDA-approved contraceptives and related logistics. Other restrictions placed on the funds specify that; none of the funds may be used in the People's Republic of China; they must be placed in a separate account and not co-mingled with any other funds; they may not be use to carry out any program, project or activity disapproved by the US Ambassador to the UN; the full amount must be refunded if UNFPA provides more than $57 million for its 5-year family planning program in china that began in 1990 and for which funds already have been committed. Once the largest donor to UNFPA, the US government has not contributed to the Fund since 1985 after the Reagan Administration and antifamily planning forces in Congress lashed out against UNFPA for its support of the allegedly coercive Chinese national family planning program. 2 USAID probes were unable to trace UNFPA funds to the forced abortions the Chinese government program was charged with encouraging and carrying out. Nevertheless, after Congress approved the 1989 foreign operations bill with $15 million earmarked for UNFPA, President Bush vetoed the measure. In his veto message, the President said that UNFPA "participates in and strongly defends the program of a particular foreign government which relies heavily upon compulsory abortion." Pointing out that UNFPA has received no US assistance since 1985 "precisely because of its involvement in this coercive abortion policy," Bush said the 1989 bill represented "a radical and unwarranted change in policy." Although the President failed to name the country that "relies heavily upon compulsory abortion" congressional opponents of refunding UNFPA singled out China as that country. The Chinese government has repeatedly issued official denials that force or coercion are involved in its population policy or programs. Meanwhile, the Bush administration has been pushing hard for Congress to grant most favored nation trade status to China, UNFPA is the largest multilateral agency providing population assistance to developing countries. But Dr. Nafis Sadik, executive director of the Fund, says that "requests for assistance from all regions have mounted to a level that can no longer be met by our organization." She pointed out that the demand for UNFPA support already exceeds the Fund's resources by $500 million. Additionally, she said, many countries--particularly in sub-Saharan Africa--want to expand their current population programs, and new requests are coming from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Baltic States, and Eastern Europe. More than 100 countries contribute to UNFPA, but most of the Fund's resources are derived from a handful of donors--Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Canada.