[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2604 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2604

To provide financial and other support to the United Nations Population 
Fund to carry out activities to save women's lives, limit the incidence 
  of abortion and maternal mortality associated with unsafe abortion, 
  promote universal access to safe and reliable family planning, and 
assist women, children, and men in developing countries to live better 
                                 lives.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 7, 2007

 Mr. Crowley introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide financial and other support to the United Nations Population 
Fund to carry out activities to save women's lives, limit the incidence 
  of abortion and maternal mortality associated with unsafe abortion, 
  promote universal access to safe and reliable family planning, and 
assist women, children, and men in developing countries to live better 
                                 lives.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``United Nations Population Fund 
Women's Health and Dignity Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) Sexual and reproductive health problems account for an 
        estimated 10 percent of the total global burden of disease and 
        32 percent of the burden among women of reproductive age.
            (2) More than four in 10 of the world's pregnant women 
        still have no access to skilled care at childbirth. Every 
        minute, a woman somewhere dies in pregnancy or childbirth--
        529,000 deaths a year. Ninety-five percent of maternal deaths 
        occur in Africa and Asia while fewer that one percent occur in 
        the more developed regions of the world.
            (3) A million or more children are left motherless each 
        year as a result of maternal mortality. These children are 
        three to 10 times more likely to die within two years than 
        children who live with both parents. Almost half of infant 
        deaths per year result from poor maternal health and inadequate 
        delivery care.
            (4) Roughly 201 million women in low-income countries would 
        use safe, effective contraceptive methods but such methods are 
        not available to such women, including 25 percent of married 
        women in sub-Saharan Africa. If these women had access to 
        reliable family planning services, approximately 52 million 
        unplanned pregnancies would be avoided in the developing world 
        every year, resulting in 23 million unplanned births, 22 
        million induced abortions, 7 million spontaneous abortions, 1.4 
        million infant deaths, 142,000 pregnancy-related deaths, and 
        505,000 children from losing their mothers.
            (5) Each day 14,000 people are infected with HIV. One-half 
        of all new HIV infections occur in women. In some places women 
        are six times more likely to be infected than men.
            (6) Access to voluntary family planning services, including 
        contraception, is essential in helping to reduce the number of 
        unintended pregnancies and, consequently, the incidence of 
        abortion.
            (7) In the process of helping women to achieve their 
        childbearing goals, enormous amounts of government funds are 
        saved. A study in Mexico found that for every peso the Mexican 
        social security system spent on voluntary family planning 
        services between 1972 and 1984, it saved nine pesos in expenses 
        for treating complications of unsafe abortions and providing 
        maternal and infant care. Every dollar invested in Thailand's 
        voluntary family planning program saved the Thai Government 
        more than $16.
            (8) The growing global population and its consumption 
        patterns have profound consequences for the global environment, 
        including species extinction, deforestation, desertification, 
        climate change, and the destruction of natural ecosystems. 
        These global environmental impacts pose a significant threat to 
        the earth's sustainability and impact the quality of life of 
        humans in all regions of the world.
            (9) Demographic factors have been found to be linked to an 
        increased likelihood of the outbreak of civil conflict during 
        the 1990s. Countries in which young adults comprised more than 
        40 percent of the adult population were more than twice as 
        likely as countries with lower proportions of young adults to 
        the overall adult population to experience an outbreak of civil 
        conflict.
            (10) The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was created 
        in 1969 with the support and assistance of the United States 
        Government. Today, UNFPA is the largest multilateral source of 
        funding, expertise, and programs targeted at voluntary family 
        planning, promotion of safe delivery, reduction of maternal and 
        infant mortality, and assisting women with sexual and 
        reproductive health needs during natural and man-made 
        emergencies. UNFPA also actively works to stop the spread of 
        HIV/AIDS and promote the rights, education, and livelihoods of 
        women in developing countries.
            (11) UNFPA has family planning and reproductive health 
        programs in approximately 140 countries. The United States 
        Agency for International Development operates population 
        programs in about 60 countries.
            (12) In 2006, 180 countries made financial contributions to 
        the UNFPA, including every nation in Latin America, the 
        Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. This represents an increase 
        from the 69 nations that made contributions in 1999. The United 
        States is the only developed nation not to make a contribution 
        to UNFPA, and the only nation to ever withhold contributions 
        for any reason other than budgetary considerations.
            (13) United States funding has been withheld from UNFPA 
        since January 2002, despite the fact that Congress has 
        appropriated funds for UNFPA for every fiscal year since 
        January 2002 and the Administration's own Independent 
        Assessment Team of 2002 which found, ``[N]o evidence that UNFPA 
        has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a 
        program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in 
        the [People's Republic of China]. We therefore recommend that 
        not more than $34,000,000 which has already been appropriated 
        be released to UNFPA.''.
            (14) UNFPA's pilot programs of assistance in China are 
        proving--as they were designed to--the advantages of voluntary, 
        informed, consent-based family planning over a top-down 
        administrative approach. In 32 countries that receive UNFPA 
        assistance, maternal deaths have declined, births with skilled 
        attendance have increased, knowledge of HIV/AIDS has risen, 
        knowledge of more than three modern contraceptives has risen, 
        knowledge of natural methods has increased, surgical 
        contraception has dropped, abortion rates have dropped from 24 
        per 1,000 women to 10 per 1,000 women, home-based childbirths 
        have fallen, and choice of contraception by clients has grown.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the United 
States Government should resume annual contributions to UNFPA to 
facilitate the core mission of UNFPA to save and improve the lives of 
women, infants, and men and improve communities in foreign countries.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States to provide financial and 
other support to the United Nations Population Fund to carry out 
activities to save women's lives, limit the incidence of abortion and 
maternal mortality associated with unsafe abortion, promote universal 
access to safe and reliable family planning, and assist women, 
children, and men in developing countries to live better lives.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF UNITED STATES VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION TO UNFPA.

    (a) Voluntary Contribution Authorized.--Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, the President is authorized to make a voluntary 
contribution on a grant basis to the United Nations Population Fund 
(UNFPA), on such terms and conditions as the President may determine, 
to provide financial or other support to UNFPA to carry out the 
activities described in subsection (b).
    (b) Activities Described.--The activities described in this 
subsection are to--
            (1) provide and distribute equipment, medicine, and 
        supplies, and expertise, including safe delivery kits and 
        hygiene kits, to ensure safe childbirth and emergency obstetric 
        care;
            (2) make available supplies of contraceptives for the 
        prevention of pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections, 
        including HIV/AIDS;
            (3) reduce the incidence of abortion and maternal mortality 
        related to unsafe abortion;
            (4) reduce and eliminate coercive family planning 
        practices, including coercive abortion and involuntary 
        sterilization;
            (5) reduce and eliminate the incidence of sex selection;
            (6) prevent and treat cases of obstetric fistula;
            (7) promote abandonment of harmful traditional practices, 
        including female genital cutting and child marriage;
            (8) reestablish maternal health services in areas where 
        medical infrastructure and such services have been destroyed by 
        natural disasters; and
            (9) promote the access of unaccompanied women and other 
        vulnerable people to vital services, including access to water, 
        sanitation facilities, food, and health care, in emergency 
        situations.
    (c) Waiver.--The President is authorized to make a voluntary 
contribution on a grant basis to UNFPA to provide financial or other 
support to UNFPA to carry out activities to respond to a natural or 
man-made emergency if the President determines that such activities 
will save human life or prevent or alleviate human suffering.

SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    (a) Report Required.--The President shall transmit to the 
appropriate congressional committees on an annual basis for each of the 
fiscal years 2008 through 2012 a report on the implementation of this 
Act.
    (b) Matters To Be Included.--The report required by subsection (a) 
shall include a detailed analysis of the scope, success, and value of 
activities of the United Nations Population Fund, with particular 
emphasis on the number of lives saved, the number of abortions 
prevented, and success in meeting the goals of the Program of Action of 
the International Conference on Population and Development.
    (c) Definition.--In this section, the term ``appropriate 
congressional committees'' means--
            (1) the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on 
        Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; and
            (2) the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on 
        Foreign Relations of the Senate.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    To carry out this Act, there are authorized to be appropriated to 
the President $50,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2008 through 
2012.
                                 <all>