The United Nations agency charged with improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide is bracing to lose its top government donor once President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House next year. The U.N. Population Fund — better known as UNFPA — has seen its funding cut by Republican presidents since 1986, and it expects Trump will do so again when he takes office on Jan. 20. But its top representative in Washington hopes Trump will at least leave the door open for collaboration with U.S agencies such as the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development because they all share the same goals. “We don’t want women to die in childbirth, we don’t want anyone to be terrorized by gender-based violence and we don’t want anyone to have their futures derailed by substandard health systems,” Sarah Craven, the UNFPA Washington office chief, told Carmen. The backstory: Republican presidents have deemed UNFPA ineligible for U.S. funding because of its work in China, which for more than three decades required families to have only one child. This policy subjected women to forced contraception, sterilization and abortion, according to Human Rights Watch. A provision Congress passed in 1985, called the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, barred U.S. funds from going to organizations deemed to support or participate in programs of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization. UNFPA was never proven to have done that, “it’s just because we have a program in China,” Craven said, pointing to reports from the U.S. and other governments about UNFPA’s work in China. UNFPA also doesn’t provide or support abortion services. A perception that it does is another reason for Republicans to deny funding. The organization provides women with sanitary and post-delivery kits in some of the world’s most conflict-ridden and impoverished regions, where women must sometimes face childbirth alone. It also offers access to condoms and contraceptive pills. The Biden administration is expected to contribute about $181 million to UNFPA this year, a historic high. The U.S. was UNFPA’s top donor in 2022 and 2023. “The prospect of losing the funding or that political-technical partnership is very daunting,” Craven said. What’s next? If Trump proceeds with the cut, UNFPA says women would “lose lifesaving services in some of the world’s most devastating crises.” That includes Bangladesh, where U.S. funding has helped provide maternal health care, family planning, gender-based violence prevention and response and emergency support to more than 200,000 women and girls living in the refugee camp in the Cox’s Bazar district and in host communities. And 20 safe spaces offering mental health support to women traumatized by the Ukraine war and at increased risk of gender-based violence would have to close, among other consequences, according to UNFPA. While other countries and donors have in the past increased their support to UNFPA to help make up for the shortfall caused by previous U.S. cuts, Craven said it would be tougher for many governments to do so this time, given tight budgets around the world.
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