Urge Your Committee Member to Reinstate Funding for UNFPA!
Below is a sample letter to your Committee Member about our Choice issue for July, Liberty and Justice for All: Bush's International Family Planning Policies. Please feel free to use the letter as is, or change the content as you like.
Dear [Committee Member],
I write to urge your strong support to reinstate funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNFPA is the largest internationally funded source of population assistance to developing countries. Over the past 33 years, UNFPA has provided more than $6 billion in aid to more than 160 countries for voluntary family planning and maternal and child health care.
UNFPA is funded entirely from voluntary contributions from participating nations. UNFPA does not provide any support for abortion. UNFPA’s priorities include working to increase access to reproductive health services, improving approaches to adolescent reproductive health, promoting safe pregnancy and delivery, reducing maternal morality, providing emergency assistance in refugee situations, and preventing and treating HIV/AIDS.
UNFPA funding should not be held hostage to anti-choice ideology when the allegations leveled at UNFPA have been shown to be untrue. No mainstream human rights organization has ever accused UNFPA of being complicit in violations perpetrated by the Chinese government or elsewhere. Even President Bush’s own fact finding team, which traveled to China last year, found no evidence that UNFPA knowingly supported or participated in China’s population control policies. The team recommended that U.S. funds be released to UNFPA immediately. After 3 years of cancelled funding, it becomes increasingly apparent that this is based not on facts but on ideology.
Please reinstate the funding for the UNFPA, and include language in the bill to prohibit President Bush from rescinding funding without clear evidence of wrongdoing.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
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