34
MILLION FRIENDS OF UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND: UNFPA: JANE ROBERTS
YOUTUBE VIDEO:
13/09/2008
(MaximsNewsNetwork)
UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNewsNetwork / 13
September 2008 --
On July 22, 2002 the Bush Administration in the person of then Secretary of
State Colin Powell announced that it was not going to release the $34 million
Congress had approved for the United Nations Population Fund.
The excuse was
that UNFPA was complicit in China’s coercive policies. No other country has
ever faulted UNFPA’s small program in China. Powell’s investigative team
came back from China recommending that the funds be released.
Powell, who had
testified that UNFPA did invaluable work in the world, should have resigned on
the spot.
At 3:00 am on July 23, I lay awake, anger simmering in my
brain.
Right there and then I decided to ask 34 million Americans for one
dollar.
Lois Abraham had exactly the same idea.
Over six years later, 34 Million
Friends is alive and well.
Unfortunately we are no where close to $34 million
but a significant amount of money with more coming in every week, is sending a
positive message to the world from the American people.
Gender inequality is at the root of many of the world’s
ills. The first of the Millennium Development Goals seeks to cut in half the
numbers of people living in extreme poverty.
Two-thirds of these people are
women.
Two-thirds of the illiterate people on the planet today are women and
girls. Educated women marry later, have fewer children, educate them and keep
them healthy.Women’s equality is
a win-win.
Maternal mortality and morbidity are not falling. Over
500,000 women die in childbirth every year.
At the Women Deliver world
conference in London last October, a conference whose purpose was to ask for
action on maternal deaths, I heard Dr. Grace Kodindo recount her struggles in a
clinic in Chad. You can read what I wrote at www.34millionfriends.org.
At first the United States was listed as a co-sponsor of
Women Deliver but dropped its sponsorship when UNFPA took a prominent role.
The
United States likes to make the world believe that UNFPA supports abortion.
UNFPA which does no abortions but which offers the family planning which
prevents abortions is to my mind the most pro-life of all agencies.
Incidentally
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Great Britain announced a 100 million pound gift
to UNFPA over 5 years, much of the money to go to family planning commodities of
which there is a worldwide shortage. This British endorsement of UNFPA should
tell the American people something.
Most people have no idea of how many women resort to
abortion.There are approximately
200 million pregnancies every year. Twenty percent of these end in abortion,
i.e. 40 million.
Of these, at least half are illegal, unsafe, causing 68,000
maternal deaths and over 5 million injuries and infections. UNFPA states that
$34 million would prevent 800,000 abortions. The world must do better by its
women.
We need 34 million good hearted Americans who will join 34
Million Friends.
We need an Administration which respects and supports
women. Frankly, we haven’t had one for 8 years. We need an Administration
which will join 180 other countries in supporting the humanitarian work of the
United Nations Population Fund. We need change.
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