Further reading on UNFPA

Dramatic reduction of maternal deaths is within reach

Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA Release New Study
December 3, 2009

Targeted Investments Can Also Radically Reduce Unintended Pregnancies and Unsafe Abortion and Lower Poverty Levels

London, 3 December, 2009 – Maternal deaths in developing countries could be slashed by 70% and newborn deaths cut nearly in half if the world doubled investment in family planning and pregnancy-related care, shows a new report by the Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Currently, more than half a million maternal deaths and 3.5 million newborn deaths, many of them easily preventable, occur each year in developing countries.

The new report, Adding It Up: The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Family Planning and Maternal and Newborn Health, also found that investments in family planning boost the overall effectiveness of every dollar spent on the provision of pregnancy-related and newborn health care. Simultaneously investing in both family planning and maternal and newborn services can achieve the same dramatic outcomes for $1.5 billion less than investing in maternal and newborn health services alone. |MORE

All Adding It Up materials are available at http://www.guttmacher.org and http://www.unfpa.org.

US Funding for UNFPA Will be Restored

By Jodi Jacobson
RH Reality Check
Mar 6 2009 - 3:26pm

Last night [March 5, 2009] sane heads prevailed and the Senate voted to defeat the Wicker Amendment to the omnibus bill that could once again have been used to limit US funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The vote was 55 to 39 against the amendment.

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Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) lead the effort to defeat the Wicker amendment which would have continued the bad on U.S. funding for UNFPA.

The Omnibus bill includes $50 million for UNFPA, an organization that seeks to improve access to basic family planning services, including contraception to help women avoid unintended pregnancy, and essential maternal health, pre- and post-natal care, and emergency obstetric care aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality. Deaths due to complications of pregnancy and unsafe abortion remain leading killers of women in many countries of the world. UNFPA is an essential partner in efforts to reduce the high rates of death among women and the toll such deaths take on families and communities.

US funding for UNFPA had become a political football during the Bush Administration, and was held up by baseless charges that the organization contributed to abuses under China's one-child family policy. No credible evidence has ever been found to prove this charge. |MORE

• Bush again withholds money from Population Fund |MORE, a decision called "appalling" by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. |MORE

• Greater Global Response Needed To Fight Sexual Violence in War Zones, UNFPA Director Says. Read further about the "grossly inadequate" global response to fighting rape and other sexual violence in war zones in this article about the June 2006 international conference called to discuss this burgeoning problem.

• "Congress Passes Foreign Operations Bill - Funds UNFPA at $34 Million: On Tuesday, November 1, 2005, the House and Senate conference committee approved the Foreign Operations budget for FY 2006 allocating $34 million to UNFPA. However, the Kemp-Kasten amendment, which allows the Administration to withhold the funds for UNFPA, remains in the bill. The Senate-passed version would have modified the amendment but the language was not approved.
  The House approved this budget on Friday, November 4th by a vote of 358-39. The bill has not yet come up for a vote in the Senate." ->> Read further

• "When disaster strikes the health needs of women are of particular concern. According to UNFPA’s Executive Director, Thoraya Obaid, " 'Our experience in responding to the earthquake in Bam, Iran, and to the tsunami, has confirmed that needs relating to pregnancy and hygiene must be addressed from the outset.' " ->> Read further: Pakistan Earthquake Relief.

• "UNFPA works with governments, other UN agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to meet the emergency reproductive health needs of refugees..." ->> Read further about UNFPA's Early Action in Extreme Situations.

• "Americans for UNFPA is dedicated to building American support for the work of UNFPA..." ..->> Read further.

• More than 500,000 women died from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth in 2000, but 99% of those maternal deaths were preventable...," according to the UNFPA report. ->> Read further.

• "President Bush is holding "hostage to politics" for "untrue" reasons funding earmarked for the U.N. Population Fund, which the organization could use to prevent two million unplanned pregnancies and 4,700 maternal deaths worldwide, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial says. ->>Read further.

• "When I walked into the maternity hospital here, I wished that President Bush were with me," states Nicholas D. Kristof in "Mr. Bush, This Is Pro-Life?" ->>Read further October 23, 2005.

• - 34 Million Friends of UNFPA is a grassroots effort working with Americans for UNFPA to balance the injustice of the U.S. failure to provide continuing funding to UNFPA.