Global Policy Forum

Marcia Gillespie

U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Thoraya Obaid says in an interview in the current issue of the quarterly Conscience that U.S. President George W. Bush's decision last year to withhold $34 million Congress had approved for UNFPA has "caused a financial crisis" and forced the agency to cut programs around the world.

Bush withheld the funds because of allegations that UNFPA was indirectly supporting forced abortions in China. Interviewed by former Ms editor Marcia Gillespie for Conscience, which is published by Catholics for a Free Choice, Obaid stressed UNFPA's insistence that China remove birth quotas in the 32 provinces where the agency works -- a condition she said has led to lower abortion rates.

"We are the only population organization working in China. If we were to withdraw, there would be nobody there talking about the human rights of women to make choices about their families. We are the only ones pushing the agenda. Of course, there are still problems to deal with, but the fact that abortion rates have decreased means that what we are promoting is pro-life in the best sense of the issue. We save women's lives, and that makes us pro-life," Obaid said.

"As a result" of the policy on removing quotas, she added, "we were also able to dialogue with them and get them to support and implement reproductive health services that are based on complete information, choices of contraceptives, informed decisions, guidance and counseling for the women, something they didn't have before."

Obaid said UNFPA has made known its opposition to China's one-child policy, that the agency's work in China has since 1998 been "the most monitored development project in the world" and that UNFPA already had an agreement with Washington to put U.S. money into a separate account that would not be used for work in China. "Unfortunately," she said, "the PRI [the conservative Population Research Institute] was able to sway the current U.S. administration."

"We are hurting the very women that we say we want to support," she said, adding that the U.S. move "has caused a financial crisis. We are still hoping that the U.S. government will reconsider its position and that we can find a way to work together to get around this."

"Although we are trying to minimize the impact on the countries by making significant cuts here at headquarters -- in administration, travel and staff training -- we are a small organization, and our administrative costs are not very high," she added. "The overwhelming majority of the money in our budget goes to our programs, so we will have to make cuts there. Programs that were slated to start this year have been canceled. There will be no expansion of many existing programs and no major purchases of equipment and other related tools and supplies. As a result, we will be serving fewer people, and the quality of our services will be impaired, and in the end, women will suffer from it" (Marcia Gillespie, Conscience, Winter 2002-03).

© 2002 by National Journal Group Inc., 1501 M St., N.W., Washington, DC 20005. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of National Journal. All rights reserved.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.