The House State and
Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee
yesterday passed a bill providing the largest total amount ever provided by the U.S. for family planning programs (not accounting for inflation) and the largest one-year increase on record. The total comes to $600 million — with $60 million for UNFPA and $540 million for USAID. Rep. Nita Lowey, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee, said in a statement,

The United States has a
moral obligation to help people around the world who lack access to
critical reproductive health services like family planning and emergency
obstetric care…I am proud that the Subcommittee approved
increased investments in family planning and vital health services for
women and families in the developing world. 

President Bush has denied funding to UNFPA for the past seven years, on the grounds that the organization’s work in China puts it in violation of the Kemp-Kasten amendment, which bars U.S. foreign aid for groups that promote coercive sterilization or abortion. Multiple examinations of UNFPA’s China programs have found no evidence of such involvement. Lowey’s bill addresses this determination by stating that regardless of the President’s determination on UNFPA vis a vis Kemp-Kasten, the money earmarked for UNFPA will still go to the agency, but will be used for specified purposes only.  Those specified purposes?  They comprise the core of UNFPA’s work.  In other words, Lowey has constructed a handy way in which to force opponents of UNFPA funding to face a list of activities — including

• Provision of supplies
  to ensure safe childbirth and emergency obstetric care;
• Provision of contraceptives
  to prevent unintended pregnancies and the spread of disease;
• Prevention and treatment
  of obstetric fistula;
• Reestablishment
  of maternal health services in regions devastated by natural disasters
  and armed conflict;
• Promotion of access
  to vital services, including water, food and health care, for vulnerable
  populations; and
• Efforts to end harmful
  traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage.

 

— and nowhere suggesting any coercive activity — and saying point blank what they oppose.

A more complete analysis, complete with coverage of the Senate’s Committe mark-up of their version of the bill, coming this afternoon!