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U.S. should aid UNFPA's efforts

U.S. should aid UNFPA's efforts

Date published: 8/15/2004

Assistant Secretary of State Arthur E. Dewey has now written two disingenuous letters to editors I know about.

In an April 3 letter to The Boston Globe, which I have before my very eyes, he wrote, "President Bush remains committed to the key Cairo Programme of Action goals of reducing infant, child, and maternal mortality and providing universal access to education."

He's right, these were key goals of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development.

But the keystone goal of Cairo, adopted by 179 countries including our own, of which the great majority of Americans aren't aware, is universal access to knowledge about and affordable access to methods of family planning.

He does not mention that in his letter because the Bush administration in several international venues has voted against reaffirming the Cairo agreement because of this latter keystone goal.

His second disingenuous letter, was in your paper Aug. 9, in which he says the decision not to fund the United Nations Population Fund was based on careful consideration of all relevant facts, then intimated that UNFPA supports and participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion and sterilization in China.

No reputable fact-finding body, including one from our own State Department, has found that to be true.

In fact, the investigating team sent by Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2002 recommended that the $34 million be released. It also bears knowing that the money given to UNFPA by the United States is put into a separate account at UNFPA and none of it ever goes to China.

So by defunding UNFPA, we are not hurting China but the 140 other countries where UNFPA works for safe motherhood and family planning.

Secretary Dewey's letters to editors tend to leave out important facts.

Jane Roberts

Redlands, Calif.

Jane Roberts is co-founder of 34 Million Friends of UNFPA.

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Date published: 8/15/2004