US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. Reuters
The US State Department announced yesterday that it is withdrawing funding for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which promotes "family planning" all over the world.
In a letter to US Senate foreign relations committee chairman Bob Corker, the state department said it was dropping the funding because the UNFPA "supports, or participates in the management of, a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation". In total $32.5m (£26m) in funds will be withdrawn for the 2017 financial year.
CBC reports that the State Department specifically referred to the fact that the UN fund partners with China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, responsible for overseeing China's "two-child policy" — a loosened version of the notorious "one-child policy" in place from 1979 to 2015. The Population Fund is the single largest international provider of contraception, family planning, and other "reproductive health" services.
The move comes after the Trump administration reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which withholds US funding from organisations that provide or promote abortion. The UNFPA's co-operation with population control policies also led to Presidents Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and George W Bush withdrawing funding.
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