Steve Mosher is the president of Population Research Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to debunking the myth that the world is overpopulated.
The European Parliament’s Development & Cooperation Committee is due to consider a report on international development. This report, called the Sandbaek Report, will be the European Parliament's contribution to the European Union's international development funding over the next five years. It involves hundreds of millions of Euros, and would include funding for UNFPA.
The report is couched in population control euphemisms such as “reproductive services” and “emergency contraception” and calls for such “services” to be targeted at the “poorest populations in both rural and urban areas.”(2)
However, the vote on the report has been delayed until November because amendments opposing increased population control spending have been advanced by members of the European Parliament who are concerned about UNFPA’s support of forced abortion in China.
In September, PRI's lead investigator, Josephine Guy, briefed members of the European Parliament (MEPs) about UNFPA support of forced abortion in China. Ms. Guy testified about her investigation in China last September 2001, when she interviewed victims and witnesses of forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced use of IUDs, and imprisonment and destruction of homes for non-compliance, in one of UNFPA’s model county programs in China.(3)
In addition, Guy conveyed to MEPs evidence obtained in China last May by the US State Department team of investigators. Those investigators found evidence of “social compensation fees” in several UNFPA county programs in China. Guy pointed out that, based on solid evidence, the U.S. State Department found that the UNFPA was providing funding, and technical and surgical support so that the Chinese State Family Planning Commission could implement its program of forced abortion more effectively.(4)
The delay of UNFPA funding from the EU is an abrupt turn of events following the EU’s announcement of this on June 24. The EU press office prematurely announced that UNFPA funding would be increased by “32 million Euros in aid” to replace, at least part, of the US funding.(5)
One significant amendment added to the Sandbaek report would prohibit abortion from being promoted as a method of family planning.(6) In China, while UNFPA claims it does not support abortion as a method of family planning, the US State Department has shown clearly that UNFPA actually supports forced abortion. Given this fact, it is becoming increasingly problematic for individual countries, or the EU as a whole, to fund the UNFPA.
END NOTES
1. Letter from U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to Sen. Patrick Leahy, July 21, 2002; Analysis of Determination: Kemp-Kasten Amendment.
2. Sandbaek Report, European Parliament, Sept. 18, 2002.
3. House Committee on International Relations, Testimony of Josephine Guy, October 17, 2001.
4. Ibid., Analysis of Determination: Kemp-Kasten Amendment.
5. “With 32 Million Euros in Aid, EU to Fill ‘Decency Gap’ Left in Decision to Stop Funding UN Family Planning Organization,” European Union Press Release, July 24, 2002.
6. Ibid., Sandbaek Report, Amendment 10.
