Front Royal, VA, 03/25/09 – Contrary to the claims of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), China’s coercive one-child policy is alive and well in the counties in which their organization operates.
On March 7th -11th of this year, the Population Research Institute (PRI) launched an on-the-ground investigation in 3 UNFPA “model counties.” These are counties where the UNFPA makes the claim that their efforts have “removed birth targets and quotas and introduced a quality-of-care approach.”
PRI’s investigative team found that the one-child policy was not relaxed in the counties it investigated, and, in some ways, the coercive measures undertaken by the government are worse now than ever.
According to PRI’s Colin Mason, who headed up the investigation, “when the actual conditions on the ground are observed, the UNFPA’s claim that it ‘played a catalytic role in introducing a voluntary reproductive health approach in China’ is patently absurd. The policy is just as coercive in these areas as anywhere else.”
“Crippling fines, intense pressure to be sterilized, the flagrant display of quota information, and even the seizure of “illegal children” by the government are commonplace,” Mason continued. “The UNFPA insists that its presence has led to the removal of these measures. It has not.”
“We at PRI ask the President to take a more critical approach in considering funding for the UNFPA,” said Steven Mosher, PRI’s president. “United States law clearly dictates that tax dollars cannot fund forced abortion or coercive measures overseas. The President has shown no consideration for these laws, nor has he expressed any concern over the UNFPA’s clear and consistent involvement in human rights abuses.”
“We stand ready to provide evidence to the Obama Administration regarding UNFPA’s involvement in China’s coercive policy.”
