US to Withhold $34 Million in UN Funds

The Bush administration will not pay $34 million it had earmarked for UN family planning programs overseas serving poor women. The decision is likely to be announced from the State Department on Tuesday. Behind the scenes, White House officials said privately that conservative activists have for months quietly pressured the administration to prove President Bush's anti-abortion credentials by permanently denying money to the UN Population Fund. The fund helps countries deal with reproductive and sexual health, family planning and population strategy, as well as AIDS.

The White House has kept the politically delicate decision a closely guarded secret and has refused to divulge it even to allies in Congress, such as the Pro-Life Caucus. Because White House officials declined to return phone calls on the matter, the reasoning behind the decision was not clear.

Last year, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Senate that the UN agency does "invaluable work" and "provides critical population assistance to developing countries." Bush himself proposed $25 million for the organization, an increase from the $21.5 million the fund received during the last year of the Clinton administration. Key lawmakers later agreed on $34 million for the agency. President Bush has already signed into law the foreign aid bill that contains the $34 million, but when he did so in January, he noted in an accompanying statement that it gives him "additional discretion to determine the appropriate level of funding for the United Nations Population Fund."

Countering charges leveled by conservative groups, a US government fact-finding mission to China in early May reportedly found no evidence that the UN's program directly or indirectly facilitated forced sterilization and abortions in China.

In advance of the administration's formal announcement, 48 members of Congress asked Bush last week to explain why he had withheld $34 million after approving it in January. The lawmakers said they wanted to "share our understanding" of how UN Population Fund programs in China operate. They also asked the president to release the report from the US fact-finding mission in China.

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