By Congressman Chris Smith = (R-NJ)
Like the Good = Samaritan, she picked=20 up a newborn baby girl who had been abandoned on the side of the road = and took=20 her home. Even though she was pregnant with her first child, she could = not bring=20 herself to turn her back on this innocent and helpless infant. Then the = knock=20 came on her door. The decision had been made; Chinese law only allowed = her to=20 have one child and since she had taken a baby girl into her protection = she would=20 be required to abort the child in her womb. In China the terrible = consequence=20 for her compassionate act was that her unborn child was killed through a = forced=20 abortion.
This heart-wrenching story, told by the victim during = a=20 congressional hearing, is all too common in China. For the last two = decades the=20 United Nations Population Fund, with the misfitting acronym UNFPA, has=20 shockingly defended the coercive Chinese population control program. = Thankfully,=20 President George Bush has once again put the United States solidly on = the side=20 of the victims and against the oppressors by refusing to fund UNFPA. =
The victims have told me their horrific stories about = the=20 Chinese one-child-per-couple policy. At one religious freedom meeting in = China,=20 I asked what the participants knew about forced abortion policies. All = three=20 women in the group broke down in tears as they shared with me how they = all had=20 been forced to have abortions. One woman talked about how she thought = God was=20 going to protect her baby, but she was not able to escape the abortion.=20
Other women who have gained asylum in the United = States because=20 of China's coercive population control program have told me terrible = stories of=20 crippling fines, imprisonment of family members, and destruction of = homes and=20 property - - all to force abortion and sterilization upon millions of = women.=20 According
to the most recent State Department Human Rights = Report, one=20 consequence of "the country's birth limitation policies" is that 56% of = the=20 world's female suicides occur in China, which is five times the world = average=20 and approximately 500 suicides by women per day.
Mrs. Gao Xiao Duan, a former administrator of a = Chinese Planned=20 Birth Control Office, testified before Congress about China's policies. = She=20 explained, "Once I found a woman who was nine months pregnant, but did = not have=20 a birth-allowed certificate. According to the policy, she was forced to = undergo=20 an abortion surgery. In the operation room I saw how the aborted child's = lips=20 were sucking, how its limbs were stretching. A physician injected poison = into=20 its skull, and the child died, and it was thrown into the trash can. . . = . I was=20 a monster in the daytime, injuring others by the Chinese communist = authorities'=20 barbaric planned-birth policy, but in the evening, I was like all other = women=20 and mothers, enjoying my life with my children. . . . [T]o all those = injured=20 women, to all those children who were killed, I want to repent and say = sincerely=20 that I'm sorry!"
While Mrs. Gao acknowledged her part in these human = rights=20 atrocities and courageously told her story, UNFPA continues to side with = the=20 Chinese government.
Since 1979, UNFPA has been the chief apologist and = cheerleader=20 for China's coercive one-child-per-couple policy. Despite numerous = credible=20 forced abortion reports from impeccable sources, including human rights=20 organizations like Amnesty International, journalists, former Chinese = population=20 control officials, and, above all, from the women victims themselves, = high=20 officials at UNFPA always dismiss and explain it all away. UNFPA has = funded,=20 provided crucial technical support, and, most importantly, provided = cover for=20 massive crimes of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization. =
Time and again, high officials of UNFPA have defended = the=20 indefensible and called voluntary that which is anything but. The former = executive director of UNFPA, Nafis Sadik, said, "China has every reason = to feel=20 proud of and pleased with its remarkable achievements made in its family = planning policy. The country could offer its experiences and special = expertise=20 to help other countries." On CBS Nightwatch she said, "The UNFPA = firmly=20 believes, and so does the government of the People's Republic of China, = that=20 their program is a totally voluntary program." And Sven Burmester: = UNFPA's man=20 in Beijing, gushed over China's achievements, "In strictly quantitative = terms,=20 it was the most successful family-planning policy ever developed." =
Make no mistake that China covets UNFPA financial and = verbal=20 support of their program as a "Good-Housekeeping seal of approval" to = whitewash=20 its human rights violations. I traveled to China and met with the head = of its=20 population control program, Peng Peiyun. In our lengthy conversation, = Madame=20 Peng Peiyun told me over and over again that there was no coercion in = China, and=20 then she cited UNFPA's participation in the program and UNFPA's public=20 statements where UNFPA leaders have defended it. The United States = should not=20 help UNFPA cover up China's crimes against women and children. =
A 19-year-old law called "the Kemp-Kasten amendment" = gives the=20 President authority to disqualify an organization from receiving U.S. = funding if=20 that organization "supports or participates in the management of a = program of=20 coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush used = this law to=20 prevent UNFPA from receiving U.S. funding because UNFPA operated in = China.=20 President Bush even vetoed the 1989 Foreign Operations Appropriations = bill to=20 prevent government funding from going to UNFPA.
When Bill Clinton became president, he unilaterally = determined=20 that UNFPA did not violate the law and U.S. funding began to flow to = UNFPA. But=20 UNFPA's activities were so egregious that even during one year of the = Clinton=20 presidency, Congress successfully withheld all funding from = UNFPA.
The George W. Bush Administration reexamined the = UNFPA issue in=20 2001, and through the Department of State determined that UNFPA's = activities in=20 China violated Kemp-Kasten, thereby making them ineligible for U.S. = funding. On=20 July 21, 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote, "Regrettably, the = PRC has=20 in place a regime of severe penalties on women who have unapproved = births. This=20 regime plainly operates to coerce pregnant women to have abortions in = order to=20 avoid the penalties and therefore amounts to a 'program of coercive = abortion.'"=20 "... UNFPA's support of, and involvement in, China's population-planning = activities allows the Chinese government to implement more effectively = its=20 program of coercive abortion. Therefore, it is not permissible to = continue=20 funding UNFPA at this time." The funds that would have gone to UNFPA = were=20 instead given to assist other organizations.
After the Bush Administration determined that UNFPA = violated=20 the law, three members of the House attempted to change the law so that = UNFPA=20 can receive funding even if it continues to support China's program. = Reps.=20 Maloney, Crowley, and Lowey have all offered amendments and supported = bills to=20 force funding to UNFPA.
But each of those attempts to change human rights law = has been=20 defeated. UNFPA and its friends on Capitol Hill continue to make = outrageous=20 claims that tens of thousands of women die if other organizations = besides UNFPA=20 receive U.S. funding, but their claims are unsubstantiated and = illogical,=20 especially since the funding is not cut but is instead given to other=20 organizations.
In 2002, China explicitly stated its Draconian = population=20 control program in law, but UNFPA still continues to support the Chinese = program. The Bush Administration has consistently found UNFPA ineligible = to=20 receive funding, most recently releasing a July 15, 2004, letter where = Secretary=20 Powell said, "China continues to employ coercion in its birth planning = program,=20 including through severe penalties for 'out of plan births'. . . . UNFPA = continues its support and involvement in China's coercive birth = limitation=20 program in counties where China's restrictive law and penalties are = enforced by=20 government officials."
UNFPA remains guilty of shamelessly supporting and = whitewashing=20 terrible crimes against humanity, and the United States will have no = part in=20 subsidizing them. In refusing to fund UNFPA, President Bush has taken = the side=20 of the oppressed and has refused to cooperate with the oppressor. UNFPA = has=20 aggressively defended a barbaric policy that makes brothers and sisters = illegal,=20 and makes women the pawns of the population control cadres.
If UNFPA lobbied the Chinese government to stop = forced abortion=20 as aggressively as it lobbies the United States to overturn human rights = policy,=20 there would be less suffering in China today.