House panel votes to deny U.N. Population Fund $50 million
Wednesday, October 5, 2011


A House committee voted Wednesday to eliminate some $50 million that President Obama requested for the U.N. organization that helps women and children in developing countries with reproductive health and family planning, a reflection of growing Republican anger with both the world body and its work in China.

The GOP-led Foreign Affairs Committee approved legislation that targets the yearly U.S. contribution to the U.N. Population Fund, an organization the United States helped found in the late 1960s. Republican administrations typically have withheld funds from the group, but Mr. Obama restored the money.

The party-line vote was 23-17.

Committee Republicans criticized the U.N. group’s efforts in China, which limits urban families to one child and rural families to two if their first is a girl. The rules were established in 1979 to stem population growth in the world’s most populous country, but critics complain that it has resulted in human rights abuses such as forced sterilizations and abortions.

“Why, when Americans face a struggling economy, skyrocketing deficits and crushing debt should our taxpayer dollars go to an organization that supports coercive abortion and is flush with cash?â€