Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, July 5, 2002
Although the administration says that a final decision has not yet been made, Bush aides have quietly revealed that the president has directed the State Department to eliminate U.S. funding for the international program.
According to the Washington Post, White House officials expect Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to announce this decision sometime after July 15. If this is a loyalty test, Bush has certainly placed Powell in an extremely awkward position. Not only has Powell consistently supported the U.N. program, but just a year ago, he told a House committee that it "provides critical population assistance to developing countries."
At a recent State Department briefing, Richard Boucher, a spokesman, said that the final decision would depend on what a U.S. team reported after visiting China to determine if funds are used for coercive abortions. The White House Domestic Policy Council has evaluated that team's report and, in a presidential memo, has assessed the political calculations Bush should consider in deciding whether to fund the population fund.
According to U.N. officials, loss of U.S. funding would undermine that agency's ability to prevent 800,000 abortions, and the deaths of 4,700 women and 77,000 children under the age of 5. The United Nations insists that none of the money is used to fund abortion. The program is targeted toward contraception and AIDS prevention -- a wise investment in the developing world.
"It's the women in 142 developing countries, including Afghanistan, which the White House purports to care about so much, who are going to suffer," says Susan Cohen, director of government affairs for the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
The president has been dithering over this decision for six months. In January, Bush withheld the same $34 million from the U.N. Population Fund. If he now cuts the funding, the president faces considerable political fallout. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., has vowed a "major legislative fight."
Bush should stop playing politics with the lives of the world's poorest and neediest people -- women and children. He should do the right thing and reinstate the funding to the U.N. Population Fund.
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