Washington, DC - "The United Nations Population Fund is hiding its support of coercive family planning aimed at the world's poor behind a false front of environmentalism," said Steven W. Mosher, President of Population Research Institute. With its release of "Footprints and Milestones: State of World Population 2001, the UNFPA also provides a blueprint for coercing the poor and vulnerable in the name of humanitarian aid."
Mosher will provide an analysis of the UNFPA's "State of World Population 2001" report at the National Press Club at 10 a.m. on November 7, 2001 in the Lisagor Room, in Washington, DC.
Mosher will be joined by a team of experts who will provide information about humanitarian efforts currently underway for Afghan refugees displaced by the Taliban regime. Among those speaking are Josephine Guy of America 21. Ms Guy recently conducted a four-day investigation of UNFPA efforts abroad, and will present videotaped evidence showing UNFPA's support of a program of coercive family planning, including non-voluntary abortion and sterilization.
According to Mosher, "State of World Population 2001 is an agenda-driven document, premised on the myth of overpopulation, riddled with unfounded claims," including the following:
* In order to target poor women, the document liberally promotes "reproductive health" as a means to "gender equality" and "women's empowerment." Mosher, however, pointed out that "Recent surveys in the developing world reveal that the majority of women there are offended by and reject Western-led reproductive health campaigns, regard reproductive health as the antithesis of empowerment, and recognize that so-called 'reproductive health' campaigns are an assault upon their right to determine the timing and number of their pregnancies."
* In order to target the poor, the document also claims that population growth in developing nations has outrun food production and is dampening economic growth. Mosher responded: "Many nations in the developing world are setting new records in food production and economic growth. Where freedom prevails, prosperity and population growth go hand in hand. Where freedom is absent, there you find the UNFPA. This is an organization that works hand-in-glove with rogue governments, and takes advantage of unstable political climates, to target the poor with reproductive health campaigns. The real problem - bad government or no government at all -- is ignored."
Mosher concluded: "The wrongheaded assumptions laid out by UNFPA are designed to promote their own outdated anti-people agenda. But the UNFPA's population control campaigns, the evidence shows, violate the rights of the world's most vulnerable citizens."
PRI is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in family planning programs at home and abroad.
Pro-Life Infonet
05. november 2001