UNFPA Chairman Blasts President Bush on Withdrawing $ Over Abortion

Amsterdam, Netherlands (LifeNews.com) -- The chairman of the UNFPA on Wednesday attacked President Bush during his annual presentation of the status of the population agency. He blasted Bush for withholding $34 million in taxpayer funding of the UN operation because of its involvement in the forced abortion population control program in China. UNFPA chairman Joris Voorhoeve, a former minister of defense for the Netherlands, gave the group's annual report at The Hague. Voorhoeve said the money President Bush has withheld from the agency four times could have been used to prevent unwanted pregnancies by promoting contraception and birth control. He accused Bush of withholding the money out of "domestic political concerns," according to an Expatica News report. "This blockade by Bush is counterproductive. He is against abortion but withholding money from the UNFPA results in more illegal abortions in developing countries," Voorhoeve claimed. However, it is because of the UNFPA's involvement in the forced abortion program in China that Bush has stopped funding the agency for the last four years. The Bush administration sent two teams of investigators from the State Department and found that the UNFPA had been complicit in China's one-child program, which has resulted in numerous human rights abuses from forced abortions and sterilizations to wrongful imprisonment, job pressures and harassment. Read the complete story.