Editor's Note: This piece references forced late-term abortions under China's One-Child Policy and contains links to references and depictions of such abortions.
Now that President Joe Biden is in office, U.S. taxpayers are back to funding the United Nations Population Fund, the sexual and reproductive health agency of the UN. On Tuesday, though, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) introduced the No Taxpayer Funding for the United Nations Population Fund Act to protect Americans from having to fund the pro-China agency.
According to a press release from Rep. Roy's office:
The No Taxpayer Funding for the UN Population Fund Act creates a permanent prohibition on federal funding of the United Nations Population Fund. This legislation would prevent American tax dollars from propping up an international program that is openly complicit in China’s inhumane two-child policy and publicly praises China’s abusive population-control programs which included as forced abortions and the forced sterilization of women.
President Biden’s FY 2022 Discretionary Budget Request calls for funding the UN Population Fund and for the U.S. to back pay the funds withheld by President Trump.
Under the Trump administration, tax dollars were safe. The 2017 decision to defund the UNFPA arose from concerns to do with the agency's support for and compliance with Communist China's forced sterilizations and abortions to enforce the One-Child Policy.
"American tax dollars should never directly or indirectly support taking of innocent human life through abortion or the dehumanizing act of involuntary sterilization, and they certainly shouldn’t be used to support the oppressive, America-hating Chinese Communist Party in any way whatsoever," said Rep. Roy, according to the press release. "Former President Trump was right to stop funding the UN Population Fund due to their open partnership with the oppressive Chinese regime and their support for China’s atrocious human rights violations. This legislation will continue that policy."
The press release references an example of a couple caught pregnant with "an unauthorized child" and the consequences:
One horrific example of China’s population control methods came to light in 2016 when a couple became pregnant with an unauthorized child, the government kidnapped the husband and beat him until the mother had an abortion. Official data from the Chinese Health Ministry indicate that more than 330 million abortions have been performed since the enactment of the one-child policy.
The plight of Feng Jianmei, who had a forced abortion performed on her when she was seven months pregnant in 2012 gained worldwide attention. "Forced abortion of Feng Jianmei" even has its own Wikipedia page.
Viral photos show Jianmei lying in bed to recover from the crude procedure, with her aborted child placed next to her. While the officials responsible were forced to apologize and were suspended, it was just one horrific example where the world happened to find out.
Forced abortions still continue to exist to this day under the Two-Child Policy, which the CCP announced in 2015 as a replacement to the One-Child Policy, as many investigations have shown. The CCP has used the refuted claim of overpopulation to justify these practices.
In addition to committing human rights abuses, China is also facing a distorted male to female population ratio as a result of their treatment of unborn baby girls and preference for boys.
A 2017 statement from the UNFPA in reaction to defunding under the Trump administration said the agency "refutes" what they call an "erroneous claim" that they support China's policies, though research and investigations from the Population Research Institute, and evidence shared with Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) shows otherwise.
The UNFPA's own data profile on China does not make reference to these forced abortions though, not even in the "Data Overview" column to do with "Harmful Practices."
If the UNFPA does actually condemn these forced abortions, they're doing a poor job showing it. They should and could have used their platform to speak far and wide against what Jianmei and so many other mothers went through.
According to the press release, Rep. Roy's legislation is supported by Susan B. Anthony List, March for Life Action, Heritage Action, Family Research Council Action, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, Students for Life Action, Texas Values, Texas Right to Life, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.