European Union boosts aid to U.N. Population Fund after U.S. holds back

PAUL GEITNER / AP 24jun02

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union will give an extra $32 million to the U.N. Population Fund to help replace the U.S. money being withheld because of concerns about coercive abortions, officials said Wednesday.

Although the EU pledge falls $2 million short of the missing U.S. contribution of $34 million, EU officials stressed their continued support for the family-planning agency despite criticism from abortion opponents in the United States.

"The U.S. decision is regrettable and counterproductive ... (and) may well lead to more unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions and increased dangers for mothers and infants," said Poul Nielson, the EU commissioner for development and humanitarian aid.

"The losers from this decision will be some of the most vulnerable people on this planet."

The additional EU funding was put in the pipeline after President Bush last year signaled his intentions to withhold the U.S. contribution, said Michael Curtis, a spokesman for Nielson.

The Bush administration announced its decision Monday, saying some of the U.N. money went to Chinese agencies that carry out "coercive programs" involving abortion.

China denies that its family-planning program, which limits most couples to one child, uses forced abortions. The U.N. Population Fund also denies supporting forced abortions.

The EU aid package was approved early this month by its 15 member governments, Curtis said.

"It's helping the people who we feel the American decision particularly penalizes," he said.

Nielson has criticized Bush's stance, calling organizations like the U.N. Population Fund "part of the solution and not part of the problem" in fighting poverty and diseases like AIDS.

"If it is necessary for others to fill the decency gap in view of recent decisions (in Washington), we will do it," he said in a speech last year.

The Bush administration is expected to shift the $34 million U.S. allocation to family planning organizations run by the State Department's Agency for International Development.

Unlike the lost U.S. money, the new EU funding is earmarked for specific programs for sexual and reproductive health in 22 developing countries -- all former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

EU regulations require the aid to be spent that way, Curtis said.

"It's not replacing the American money," he said. "We're not solving the problem, but we're trying to help the situation."

The programs will operate in conjunction with the U.N. Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Foundation.

In 2000, the EU spent about $278 million for sexual and reproductive health programs, based on the average exchange rate for that entire year.