[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 27 (Friday, February 18, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E273]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


             FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2011

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 15, 2011

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) making 
     appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other 
     departments and agencies of the Government for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes:

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Chair, this week, the House is debating a 
Continuing Resolution (H.R. 1) that includes the dangerous elimination 
of funding to a key organization, UNFPA, that provides life-saving 
services to women, children and families around the world in over 150 
countries--more than any other organization in the world.
  The work UNFPA does recognizes that there is a direct connection 
between a woman's ability to plan her family, space her pregnancies, 
and give birth safely and her ability to get an education, work outside 
the home, support her family, and participate fully in her community. 
UNFPA knows that when we ignore the health of women, there is a 
measurable cost in terms of lost productivity, lost resources, and lost 
lives. The CR works against these efforts which is why I urge you to 
vote against it.
  Recent natural disasters remind us that the needs of women must not 
be forgotten in times of emergency. The devastating earthquake in Haiti 
did not stop the need for access to good maternal health care. Haiti 
already had the highest rate of maternal death in the Western 
Hemisphere before the earthquake, with the lifetime risk of dying in 
childbirth equaling 1 in 47.
  Since the earthquake, UNFPA has delivered reproductive health 
supplies, including clean delivery kits and other maternal and neonatal 
health care products.
  UNFPA helps to ensure women and their health care needs are not 
ignored in the wake of a disaster. But we can't wait until times of 
emergency to act. Each year more than 536,000 women die due to 
complications developed during pregnancy and childbirth, and another 10 
million suffer debilitating illnesses and lifelong disabilities and 
UNFPA works to help prevent these deaths and complications.
  Every step of the way, UNFPA is working to help women, prevent death, 
and support healthy families. This bill will cut funding to the basic 
work UNFPA does as well as the work in does in times of emergency, 
including Haiti, the Southeast Asia tsunami in 2004, and Afghanistan in 
2001, among other times.
  For this, and scores of other reasons, I encourage you to vote ``no'' 
on H.R. 1.

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