US cuts funding for UN Population Fund

THE Trump administration informed Congress on Monday that it had terminated US funding for the UN Population Fund, the world’s leading provider of family planning services, including contraception, to women in at least 155 countries.

The United States is one of the top donor nations to the UN, and the denial of funding was one of President Donald Trump’s biggest moves yet to reduce financing for family planning.

While the administration had signalled back in January that it was adopting a tougher stance toward family planning services that provide abortion counsel- ling, the move was nonetheless a stunning piece of news to advocates for women’s and children’s health, particularly in the developing world.

In a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs said it had determined that the Population Fund “supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation”, a reference to the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, a 1980s-era law enacted in response to evidence of forced abortions and involuntary sterilisation in China.

Women’s health advocates contend that evidence has repeatedly shown that the Population Fund’s work in China does not violate the amendment. But opponents of family planning have historically demanded that the US end its support.

The Population Fund is the single largest international provider of contraception, family planning and other reproductive health services. In 2016, health groups say, US support for the organisation’s work prevented an estimated 320,000 pregnancies and averted 100,000 unsafe abortions, while ensuring 800,000 people had access to contraception.

The organisation is financed with voluntary contributions. According to its 2015 annual report, the latest available, the United States was the fourth-largest donor with contributions exceeding $75 million.