{"id":272,"date":"2003-07-17T09:46:03","date_gmt":"2003-07-17T17:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2003\/07\/17\/what-the-un-population-fund-does\/"},"modified":"2003-07-17T09:46:03","modified_gmt":"2003-07-17T17:46:03","slug":"what-the-un-population-fund-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=272","title":{"rendered":"What the UN Population Fund Does"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s bound to be a lot of discussion of the UN Population Fund, which so-called “pro-life” Republicans in the US House of Representatives have just voted to defund<\/a>. It might be useful to review what it is the Population Fund, also known as UNFPA, does.<\/p>\n

Here’s just a handful of recent headlines:<\/p>\n

UNFPA, Italy Reopen Hospital In Kabul<\/b><\/a>
\nKABUL, Afghanistan: July 17 (PNS) – The U.N. Population Fund and the government of Italy has inaugurated a rebuilt hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, that will provide pregnant women clean and safe conditions for childbirth in a country where there are 1,700 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births \u00e2€” one of the world’s highest rates. <\/div>\n
Major Boost To Reproductive Health From UNFPA<\/b><\/a>
\n“We are losing in Pakistan something like 30 to 35 pregnant women a day – every day – because of complications either of pregnancy or delivery. These complications are preventable most of the time,” the UN official said. […] The UNFPA’s figures show that deaths from postpartum haemorrhage (bleeding after giving birth) can be reduced from 160 per 100,000 live births to 95 when the mother has access to emergency obstetric care. […] UNFPA aims to increase the number of women having antenatal consultations and medically assisted births. The organisation is also directing its funds to rural districts where health and family planning services are more rare.<\/div>\n
Trying to help alleviate a hidden horror<\/b><\/a>
\nA hidden horror afflicting millions of African women was dragged into the light of media scrutiny a few weeks ago. I’m betting that anyone who read Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column on obstetric fistula, reproduced in the Star on May 25, has not forgotten it. […] The Population Fund is an important organizer of programs to prevent and to treat fistulas. (The highly successful surgery that repairs fistulas costs between $100 and $400.) The fund recently co-operated with EngenderHealth, a U.S.-based international women’s health organization, to assess the needs of women affected by fistula in nine African countries. Their report is a landmark, and already the two organizations have launched an aggressive global campaign to prevent and treat fistula.<\/div>\n

And from the “China Mission Report” (warning: PDF file<\/a>) co-written by three British members of Parliament – including the right-wing MP Edward Leigh, who before his trip to China was the British government’s strongest opponent <\/i>of funding UNFPA. Seeing with his own eyes what UNFPA does in China changed his mind:<\/p>\n

The UK MP delegation concluded that the work UNFPA does in China, is playing a positive and important catalytic role in the reform of RP\/RH services in China.<\/p>\n

It is helping China move away from an administrative family-planning approach to a client-oriented, quality-of-care approach, where women are given a choice over their own lives.<\/p>\n

The UK MP delegation was convinced that the UNFPA programme is a force for good, in moving China away from abuses such as forced-family planning, sterilization and abortions. […]<\/p>\n

Recommendations:<\/b>
\nIt is vitally important that the UNFPA remains actively involved in China, with continued financial support from the UK and other Western Governments.<\/div>\n

Keep in mind that the excuse the “pro” life Republicans give for defunding UNFPA is that they want to help women in China who are oppressed by China’s coercive reproductive planning policies. How, exactly, does defunding one of the strongest forces for positive reform in China help Chinese women?.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s bound to be a lot of discussion of the UN Population Fund, which so-called “pro-life” Republicans in the US House of Representatives have just voted to defund. It might be useful to review what it is the Population Fund, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unfpa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}