Contact: Colin Mason, Population Research Institute, 540-622-5240 x209

FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, Sept. 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- The population controllers at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will have to pinch pennies for another year. This week, for the sixth year in a row, President Bush has invoked the Kemp-Kasten Amendment and withheld $34 million in U.S. funding from the United Nations Population Fund. We at PRI applaud this decision.

The groundwork for this decision was laid by PRI, which sent teams of investigators to China, Peru, Vietnam, and Pakistan between 1998 and 2002 to look into U.N. Population Fund activities there. What they found was that the UNFPA was deeply involved in programs of forced abortion and coercive sterilization. We presented our evidence both to the U.S. Congress and to two presidential administrations. The evidence, which included video and audio testimony from victims of these abuses, left no doubt that the UNFPA was violating the rights of women, not to mention the Kemp-Kasten Amendment itself.

Among other things, PRI's investigators found:

• Chinese family planning officials told our investigators that there was "no distinction" between the work that they were doing in a given area of China and the UNFPA's work there.
• The UNFPA itself speaks of coercive sterilizations in Peru in an internal report published in 2000, calling them "family planning decisions made external to the person." (The UNFPA later denied that this report existed.)
• In 2000, the UNFPA smuggled abortion devices into Pakistan under the guise of reproductive health kits labeled "for safe delivery." Refugee women were pressured into accepting abortions.

Reacting to PRI's findings, President Bush in 2001 decided to slash $34 million from the UNFPA budget, money that would have contributed directly to their forced family-planning accounts.

Over the years, the UNFPA has attempted over the years to cover-up these abuses, even going so far as to issue dummy reports full of misleading statements, but to no avail. Bush has been steadfast in enforcing the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, and no U.S. population funds have gone to the UNFPA since 2001. To date, the organization has lost a total of $200 million in funding.

We at PRI would like to publicly thank President Bush for his decision, which has subjected him to heavy criticism from the media and from family-planning groups. We are proud that our work here at PRI has helped to protect women around the world from anti-life bullying by the UN population controllers.

The Population Research Institute (PRI) was founded in 1989 by Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, PhD and is dedicated to: (1) ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning", (2) opposing outdated social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of overpopulation, (3) informing the public about the social and economic benefits of moderate population growth, and (4) promoting pro-natal and pro-family attitudes and policies worldwide. Steven Mosher is the author of numerous books, including A Mother's Ordeal, available in 11 languages. His next book is due in the fall of 2007.

P.O. Box 1559 - Front Royal, VA 22630 - USA
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