An amendment introduced by Sen. Roger Wicker to the omnibus spending bill earlier this week, seeking to prohibit the UNFPA from receiving U.S. funding, was defeated today in a 55-39 vote.
Wicker’s amendment would have restored to its full force the Kemp-Kasten anti-coercion population control provision to the bill. First implemented in 1985, the Kemp-Kasten provision directs the government to ensure that no U.S. taxpayer dollars go to organizations that support or participate in the management of forced sterilization and forced abortion programs.
Language was inserted into the current spending bill, however, that gives an exemption from the Kemp-Kasten provision to the UNFPA, allowing them to receive U.S. taxpayer dollars while continuing their complicity in China’s human rights offenses.
Passing the amendment would effectively have stopped $50 million in the omnibus bill from going to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization that has been shown to be involved in the implementation of China’s one-child policy, which includes coercive abortion and sterilization practices.
"The United States must side with the women and children that have been victimized by China’s one-child policy," Wicker said earlier this week in introducing the amendment.
"My amendment will do just that. By restoring the Kemp-Kasten provision that Democratic leaders have gutted in this bill, we can ensure that UNFPA is not assisting in coercive abortions in China with the help of U.S. taxpayer dollars."
Watch Sen. Wicker’s floor speech introducing his amendment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jOx2Pz8Auw
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
UNFPA Supports Coercive Family Planning-Including Forced Abortion-in China
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/oct/011005c.html
