A $34 million "political payoff"

But that doesn't matter, because this fight was never really about China. While Bush seems to be in thrall to PRI condemnations of the Population Fund's work with the Chinese Health Ministry, his administration has no problem working with the same ministry when the extreme right isn't looking. On June 28, Secretary Tommy Thompson's Department of Health and Human Services announced a new initiative to work with the Chinese on HIV/AIDS prevention -- a laudable program, but one that proves that cooperation with the Chinese government isn't verboten to Bush.

The problem isn't China -- it is family planning in general, which loud segments of the far-right oppose. For months, those opponents have pressured Bush to use the UNFPA issue to prove his antiabortion commitment. The Population Research Institute mobilized its followers to "drive the final nail into the coffin of U.N. Population Fund abortionists." But the fund doesn't have anything to do with abortion -- the U.N. prohibits it. It does promote contraception, distributing condoms in AIDS-stricken part of Africa and morning-after pills (as well as safe delivery kits) to women in refugee camps. That's the real reason for the Population Research Institute's ire. The organization's president, Steven Mosher, has written that family planning is part of a "New World Order" conspiracy, an "assault on human dignity" that "frees the proposed world government to selectively reduce the population of the world to a manageable number."

Bush probably doesn't believe this, but it's convenient for him to capitulate. "The president is ignoring the will of Congress, his own fact-finding team, and his own secretary of state," says Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. "It's perfectly clear that Karl Rove would rather appease the president's right wing than provide healthcare to women around the world. UNFPA stands up for women in countries where most NGOs fear to travel, and now the president has said to these women, 'Later.'"

The administration insists the money will still go to women's health, just through USAID instead of the United Nations Population Fund. The problem with this -- besides further alienating America's allies, every one of which supports the Population Fund -- is that USAID operates in only 80 countries, as opposed to the Population Fund's 142. The UNFPA helps women in the most ravaged places on earth, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Iran, Pakistan, Algeria, Iraq, Syria and Sudan. The USAID has no staff in any of those nations.

According to Stirling Scruggs, the UNFPA's director of information, the withdrawal of U.S. support will undermine the agency's work all over the world. "The U.S. was instrumental in creating UNFPA in 1969, during the Nixon administration," he says. "U.S. leadership in this field has been critical. This may encourage countries where we're fighting for women's rights -- for example, the right to determine who to marry and when to marry -- to take this as a sign from the most powerful country in the world that they are against that sort of thing. That hurts our credibility. We've gotten countries to deal with female genital mutilation. It's been outlawed in 16 countries since 1994. We're worried that some countries may use [America's withdrawal] as an excuse to backtrack."

The loss of funds will have tangible cost in human lives, says Thoraya A. Obaid, executive director of the Population Fund. She estimates there will be 2 million unwanted pregnancies per year, nearly 800,000 induced abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths, and more than 77,000 infant and child deaths.

All of which is why Democrats are reacting so fiercely. "The administration's decision to cut off funding for the United Nations Population Fund is an absolute outrage," says Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y. "Apparently, no price is too high for this administration when it comes to political payoffs."

Lowey has vowed to fight "tooth and nail" for legislation restoring money for the UNFPA. Leahy has already started. In the new Foreign Operations appropriations bill for 2003, approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee last Thursday, Leahy succeeded in earmarking $50 million for the Population Fund and included language that would remove the president's discretion, forcing him to release the money within 30 days.

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