U.S. Funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)PDF VersionThis is a letter by me to Congress regarding the Bush Administration's decision to defund UNFPA under pressure from the Religious Right. In June of 2002 it was distributed to over 200 members of Congress and their staff by Population Connection and the Population Division of the Sierra Club. In it, I show that the decision was based entirely on rumor and hysteria for which no independent factual support ever existed. Within two weeks of its circulation, the U.S. State Department returned from a fact-finding mission to China where UNFPA activities were investigated. That report independently reached the same conclusion, and by late June of that year Congress had restored UNFPA funding, with an increase. Needless to say, none of this had any influence in either Far-Right circles or the White House. By mid-July, Bush vetoed the restored funding anyway. No reason other than ideology was ever provided as to why.