Date published: 4/3/2003

WASHINGTON--The charges made against the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) by the Population Research Institute's president, Steven Mosher ["Rep. Davis: Champion of women, opponent of UNFPA funding," March 21], fit an old discredited pattern.

The method is simple. Fabricate a story, lace it with innuendo, and throw mud. When objective people see through the lies, repeat them, re-moisten the mud, throw it again, and hope it sticks.

But the lie that UNFPA supports coercive abortion in China, or anywhere else, can't be allowed to stick. The lives and rights of literally millions of women are at stake.

UNFPA's program in China is specifically designed to move China away from coercive practices.

Will coercion be eliminated overnight in China? Definitely not. It will take time and patient, hard work to do so. Even still, UNFPA has already achieved some important successes that deserve the support of the United States.

Since PRI made its allegations in 2001, at least three independent investigative teams have visited UNFPA programs and reached the same conclusion: The fund is working to end the use of coercion.

The latest of these was the three-person independent assessment team sent to China in May 2002 by President Bush. The team found no evidence UNFPA supported or took part in managing a program of coercive abortion or sterilization in China. In fact, they specifically recommended that the United States support UNFPA.

The team wrote: "During our visits to five of the 32 counties we asked many SFPC [State Family Planning Commission] officials, doctors of the local hospitals under the Ministry of Health, County administrative officials, and ordinary Chinese in spontaneous/no-notice encounters on the street, in a school, or in factories whether they were aware of any recent coercive abortions or involuntary sterilizations. All answered in the negative although some admitted that prior to the joint SFPC/UNFPA program there had been such cases."

Date published: 4/3/2003