7/13: Women to call white house

On Thursday, July 15th, the Bush administration is expected to once again deny funding of funds appropriated by Congress in 2004 for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an agency that provides life-saving maternal and child health, family planning and HIV prevention services to women and their families in low and middle-income countries worldwide.

International Planned Parenthood/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR) and the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) have joined with more than 30 national and state-level organizations--ranging from the National Audubon Society to the United Methodist Church—to urge thousands of Americans to call the White House on Tuesday, July 13th, 2004 and tell the President to release funding to UNFPA.

Dr. Carmen Barroso, Director of IPPF/WHR, urged their 43,000 activists to demand that the Administration “put politics aside and let the UNFPA provide desperately needed health services to the women and children of developing countries.” She noted that “It appears that political gain, not facts nor concern for global public health, have driven defunding of UNFPA.

Jodi Jacobson, Executive Director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) noted that, “Since the March for Women’s Lives in April, momentum has been building to restore funding for UNFPA and to challenge the increasing use by this Administration of the lives of women and children as political pawns to satisfy the far right. It’s outrageous that the Bush administration continues to play games with global public health – we’ve had enough!”



The Bush Administration continues to withhold funding from UNFPA based on specious charges that UNFPA supports forced abortions in China, despite the fact that a handpicked White House investigative team found “No evidence that UNFPA has supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion.” In fact, the White House panel noted that UNFPA’s presence in China has resulted in fewer abortions and forced sterilizations in the counties in which it works,” and strongly recommended that the “. . . $34 million owed to UNFPA be released” because UNFPA is a force for change in China’s program.



In effect, notes Jacobson, “by withholding funds from UNFPA, the Administration is exacerbating the very problem it claims to want to solve.” Because of its actions, concludes Barosso, it is the United States government that is complicit in abusive programs in China.”

The National Call In Day will take place on Tuesday, July 13th. Visit http://www.freechoicesaveslives.org/ippfwhr/callinday.html for more information and a full list of partner organizations.

About IPPF/WHR: International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR) has been the leading provider of reproductive health services in Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America since 1954. IPPF/WHR consists of member associations in 45 countries, working to improve the health of disadvantaged women, men, and teens.

The Center for Health and Gender Equity is a U.S.-based reproductive and sexual health and rights organization focused on the implications of U.S. international policies for women and girls worldwide. CHANGE conducts research, policy analysis, advocacy, and monitoring of U.S. programs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. http://www.genderhealth.org