House Votes "No" For UNFPA – PAI Dismayed by House Decision to Deny Funding

July 15, 2003

Washington, DC — Population Action International (PAI) today expressed its dismay over a House vote to deny funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

"The House has again missed an opportunity to replace a failed policy with a successful one," says Amy Coen, President of Population Action International. "Supporting UNFPA is supporting a great, but largely untold, success story — the story of how access to family planning saves and improves lives."

In the close (216 to 211) vote, the House of Representatives struck language that would have restored funding to the United Nations Population Fund, the preeminent global source of multilateral funding for family planning and maternal health programs. It would have authorized $50 million per year for fiscal years 2004 and 2005, and also would have clarified the provision of law which was broadly interpreted by President Bush to defund UNFPA last summer.

"The closeness of the vote demonstrates that Representatives from both sides of the aisle question this Administrations’ policy toward UNFPA," says Terri Bartlett, Vice-President for Public Policy at PAI.

UNFPA’s multi-faceted work helps women in the world’s poorest countries plan and space the number of children they wish to have. It helps ensure the safe delivery of healthy babies — even in unsafe environments. It helps to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. It helps to reduce the need for abortion. And as a result, UNFPA saves thousands of women’s and children’s lives every year.

Last year Congress approved a $34 million contribution to UNFPA. In a controversial move a few months later, the White House cancelled this contribution, depriving UNFPA of critically needed support for its global health programs. UNFPA officials estimate that the lost $34 million would prevent two million unwanted pregnancies, nearly 800,000 induced abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths, nearly 60,000 cases of maternal illness or disability, and 77,000 infant and child deaths.

"Today in the House of Representatives, politics prevailed over doing the right thing for the world’s poorest women. Once again the House has taken a giant leap backwards," says Ms. Bartlett. "We are, and the American public should be, very disappointed."