Tuesday, August 20

Was Bush wrong?
This article suggests so:

In 1998, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) encouraged China to experiment with trying to limit births less coercively in certain rural counties. The programs involved expanding health services for women, providing more information about contraception and allowing couples to make their own decisions, and ending promoting abortion as family planning. An independent team sent by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in May visited five of the counties where the experiment was held, and found no evidence of coercive abortions or involuntary sterilizations. It concluded China's family planning program remains coercive, but noted "some relaxation" in the UNFPA counties and urged Bush to continue funding UNFPA.

The Bush administration last month withheld $34 million from the UNFPA, noting that even in the UNFPA counties, the government imposes "crushing fines" on couples who have unapproved children. It argued the fines are so high they force women to have abortions.

The UNFPA has objected to the fines and hopes to persuade the government to review them. Moreover, Chinese officials said the fines are not as high as they seem, because many families earn much more than the average income and poorer families are allowed to pay less and spread payments out over time.

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