[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 64 (Wednesday, May 5, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4803-S4804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. JEFFORDS (for himself, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Leahy, Mrs. Murray, 
        and Mr. Durbin):
  S. 965. A bill to restore a United States voluntary contribution to 
the United Nations Population Fund; to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations.


       united nations population fund (unfpa) funding act of 1999

  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, today I am introducing the ``United 
Nations Population Fund Funding Act of 1999.'' Senators Chafee, Snowe, 
Leahy, Murray, and Durbin join me as original cosponsors.
  I will celebrate the memory of my mother this Sunday on Mother's Day. 
Very sadly, I know that there are millions of children in the 
developing world who have very few, or even no memories of their 
mothers. Nearly all maternal deaths are in developing countries. More 
than 585,000 women, many of them already mothers, die each year from 
causes related to pregnancy, including obstructed labor, hemorrhage and 
postpartum infection, and ectopic pregnancies caused by a sexually 
transmitted disease. Mothers also die from HIV, malnutrition and 
anemina, or complications of an unsafe abortion.
  These are only a few examples of how poverty, lack of knowledge, and 
lack of basic maternal health care claim the lives of millions of 
mothers all over the world every year. But the importance of maternal 
health care to the well-being of women and their families is clear. We 
can support mothers in poorer countries around the world by removing 
the ban on U.S. funding for UNFPA. UNFPA is currently the leading 
maternal health care provider around the world.
  During the heated debate surrounding international family planning 
and U.S. funding for UNFPA, ``the baby often gets thrown out with the 
bath water.'' The ``baby'' in this debate is the vast array of work 
UNFPA does around the world to improve pre- and post-natal mother's 
health, access to voluntary family planning programs, STD and HIV 
education and prevention, and programs to end the practice of female 
genital mutilation. UNFPA provides couples all over the world access to 
contraception. It seeks to reduce abortions and related deaths by 
improving access to family planning and to treatment for complications 
of unsafe abortion. UNFPA's priorities include preventing teen 
pregnancy. Too frequently, the bulk of UNFPA's work is overlooked in 
the international family planning controversy.
  Many people do not even realize that UNFPA also assists women in 
crisis situations. UNFPA recently announced it is sending emergency 
reproductive health hits, including equipment for safe delivery of 
babies and emergency contraceptives for rape victims, to Albania for 
thousands of Kosovar Albanian refugee women.
  The lives of pregnant women and newborns are at particular risk among 
refugees fleeing Kosovo. These kits include supplies for women who give 
birth in areas without medical facilities, including materials like 
soap, plastic sheeting, pictorial instructions for delivering a baby, 
and razor blades for cutting the umbilical cord of a newborn. These are 
the most basic of

[[Page S4804]]

items. But they can mean the difference between life and death for 
mothers and their newborn babies. The U.S. should contribute to this 
humanitarian work.
  The whole world has been horrified by reports released by human 
rights organizations stating that the Serbs are using rape as a weapon 
of war. UNFPA has responded and is leading international efforts to 
help Kosovar Albanian women who have been raped by Serb forces. UNFPA 
provides trauma treatment and counseling for other mental health 
consequences of this form of human rights abuse.
  As the legislative year progresses, the controversy over 
international family planning programs will intensify. My legislation 
calling for renewal of the U.S. contribution to UNFPA will get caught 
up in the controversy as well. But I will not let one of the most 
important issues get lost--the health of mothers in poor countries. In 
the coming months I will work with the cosponsors to this bill and many 
health care organizations to keep the issue of maternal health visible 
in the international family planning debate.
                                 ______