[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 112 (Friday, July 25, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SUPPORT FUNDING OF UNFPA, H.R. 1950: STATE DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATIONS

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                          HON. DANNY K. DAVIS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 24, 2003

  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to speak 
on the matter of the U.N. family-planning program or the UNFPA. Last 
year, President Bush cancelled three years' worth of funding to the 
UNFPA after allegations that the UNFPA's program in China violated the 
Kemp-Kasten law. This law prohibits the United States from providing 
funding to any organization that supports or participates in 
involuntary sterilization. In May of last year, President Bush sent his 
own three person team to China to investigate but even after they 
returned finding no evidence in support of these rumors, the President 
still cancelled funding to this much needed organization, endangering 
the lives of women across the globe.
  Over the past 33 years, the UNFPA has provided more than $6 billion 
in assistance to more than 160 countries for voluntary family planning 
and maternal and child health care. It has provided life-saving 
reproductive health services in over 150 poor countries around the 
world, but has not provided or paid for abortion services anywhere in 
the world. The UNFPA has actually worked to reduce the need for 
abortion by promoting voluntary family planning.
  The fact remains that today nearly 600,000 die each year from causes 
related to pregnancy; 99 percent of these women are from developing 
countries. Many of these deaths could have been prevented by providing 
the means or information to choose the size and spacing of their 
families. And while contraceptive use has increased, there are 350 
million women in developing countries who do not have access to a range 
of safe and effective family planning methods.
  With the UNFPA program, it will provide reproductive health care, 
including family planning services but not abortion, to the world's 
poorest women. The loss of each year's funding will have a severe 
impact in the developing countries the UNFPA serves: $34 million would 
prevent 2 million unintended pregnancies; nearly 800,000 abortions; 
4,700 maternal deaths; nearly 60,000 cases of serious maternal illness; 
and more than 77,000 infant and child deaths. These numbers are 
astounding and certainly something I would want to prevent.
  The evidence is clear: funding to the UNFPA must be restored. The 
UNFPA has time and time again proven to be a necessary organization 
ensuring the safety and well being of women and their families. It will 
continue to provide safe methods of contraception to women, giving them 
a choice with their health and with their lives.

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