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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (279179)	7/22/2002 10:25:37 PM
From: PROLIFE	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

I hope you keep on clip and pasting that crap. It is good for you Democraps to keep showing how idiotic you continue to be.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (279179)	7/23/2002 12:10:06 AM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

So Prolife and the rest of the right wing religious nutz get to be happy at the expense of the women and children of the world. As they have moved the money to the USAID which is NOT in FIFTY countries served by the UN program. This also is just another slap in the face to the only human being with character in the administration, Colin Powell who just recently COMPLETELY ENDORSED THE UN PROGRAM AS VERY IMPORTANT. So now we see the great compassion DUMBYA caving into his radical right element because he KNOWS HIS POLL NUMBERS ARE CRUMBLING AROUND HIS SORRY ADMINISTRATION> Bush Administration to Withhold $34M in UN Family Planning Funds By The Associated Press \| New York Times Monday, 22 July, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration will withhold $34 million that it earmarked for U.N. family planning programs overseas, an initiative aimed at controlling population but one that conservative groups charge tolerates abortions and forced sterilizations in China. The policy reversal, opposed by women's rights groups, was to be announced later Monday at the State Department, said administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity. In an effort to offset some of the criticism, the officials said, the administration will divert the $34 million planned for the U.N. Population Fund to a U.S. program, a fund for child survival and health programs that is part of the U.S. Agency for International Development. White House officials said privately that conservative activists have for months quietly pressured the administration to prove President Bush's anti-abortion credentials by permanently denying money to the United Nations Population Fund. The fund helps countries deal with reproductive and sexual health, family planning and population strategy. Conservative activists helped carry Bush to the presidency, and White House political advisers have carefully tended them with an eye to his re-election. But the decision on family planning could also damage Bush's standing with moderates and women. The White House has kept the politically delicate decision a closely guarded secret. It has refused to divulge it even to allies in Congress, such as the Pro-life Caucus. More than a dozen administration officials, inside the White House and out, declined to comment Sunday or did not return phone calls on the matter, so the reasoning behind the decision was not clear. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer wouldn't talk about the matter Monday, beyond saying that an announcement will come soon. He referred questions to the State Department, which declined comment Sunday. Just last year, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Senate that the U.N. agency does ``invaluable work'' and ``provides critical population assistance to developing countries.'' Bush himself proposed $25 million for the organization, an increase from the $21.5 million the fund got during the last year of the Clinton administration. Key lawmakers later agreed on $34 million for the agency. The president has already signed into law the foreign aid bill that contains the $34 million. But when he did so in January, he noted in an accompanying statement that it gives him ``additional discretion to determine the appropriate level of funding for the United Nations Population Fund.'' Two administration officials said Bush is now likely to channel the $34 million to family planning organizations run by the State Department's Agency for International Development. A study from a U.S. government fact-finding mission to China in early May reportedly found no evidence that the U.N.'s program directly or indirectly facilitates forced sterilizations and abortions in China. A British delegation visited China a month before the U.S. team arrived and its investigators also did not find evidence that U.N. funds were misused for such purposes. At the Chinese Embassy, spokesman Xie Feng told a news conference that it was unfortunate that the administration is not abiding by conclusions of the U.S. government report. ``We hope that this decision will be changed,'' Xie said. He added that China does not attempt to keep population rates down through coercion but rather through encouragement. ``We're very sad and shocked,'' said Sterling Scruggs, communications director for the U.N. agency. ``We are not involved in coercion in China or anywhere else in the world and never have been. On the contrary, we fight for human rights all over the world, especially women's rights,'' Scruggs told The Associated Press. Bush sent $600,000 to the U.N. fund in November for humanitarian relief in Afghanistan. The money has been used to provide sanitary napkins to Afghan women and medical assistance with labor and delivery, officials said. In advance of the administration's formal announcement, 48 members of Congress asked Bush last week to explain why he had withheld the $34 million after approving it in January. The lawmakers said they wanted to ``share our understanding'' of how U.N. Population Fund programs in China operate. They also asked the president to release the report from the U.S. fact-finding mission to China. CC