I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2604 

To provide financial and other support to the United Nations Population 

Fund to carry out activities to save women’s lives, limit the incidence 

of abortion and maternal mortality associated with unsafe abortion, promote universal access to safe and reliable family planning, and assist 

women, children, and men in developing countries to live better lives. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 7, 2007 

Mr. CROWLEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To provide financial and other support to the United Nations 

Population Fund to carry out activities to save women’s 

lives, limit the incidence of abortion and maternal mortality associated with unsafe abortion, promote universal 

access to safe and reliable family planning, and assist 

women, children, and men in developing countries to 

live better lives. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘United Nations Popu5 lation Fund Women’s Health and Dignity Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

2 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Sexual and reproductive health problems ac4 count for an estimated 10 percent of the total global 

5 burden of disease and 32 percent of the burden 

6 among women of reproductive age. 

7 (2) More than four in 10 of the world’s preg8 nant women still have no access to skilled care at 

9 childbirth. Every minute, a woman somewhere dies 

10 in pregnancy or childbirth—529,000 deaths a year. 

11 Ninety-five percent of maternal deaths occur in Afri12 ca and Asia while fewer that one percent occur in 

13 the more developed regions of the world. 

14 (3) A million or more children are left mother15 less each year as a result of maternal mortality. 

16 These children are three to 10 times more likely to 

17 die within two years than children who live with both 

18 parents. Almost half of infant deaths per year result 

19 from poor maternal health and inadequate delivery 

20 care. 

21 (4) Roughly 201 million women in low-income 

22 countries would use safe, effective contraceptive 

23 methods but such methods are not available to such 

24 women, including 25 percent of married women in 

25 sub-Saharan Africa. If these women had access to 

26 reliable family planning services, approximately 52 


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1 million unplanned pregnancies would be avoided in 

2 the developing world every year, resulting in 23 mil3 lion unplanned births, 22 million induced abortions, 

4 7 million spontaneous abortions, 1.4 million infant 

5 deaths, 142,000 pregnancy-related deaths, and 

6 505,000 children from losing their mothers. 

7 (5) Each day 14,000 people are infected with 

8 HIV. One-half of all new HIV infections occur in 

9 women. In some places women are six times more 

10 likely to be infected than men. 

11 (6) Access to voluntary family planning serv12 ices, including contraception, is essential in helping 

13 to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies 

14 and, consequently, the incidence of abortion. 

15 (7) In the process of helping women to achieve 

16 their childbearing goals, enormous amounts of gov17 ernment funds are saved. A study in Mexico found 

18 that for every peso the Mexican social security sys19 tem spent on voluntary family planning services be20 tween 1972 and 1984, it saved nine pesos in ex21 penses for treating complications of unsafe abortions 

22 and providing maternal and infant care. Every dollar 

23 invested in Thailand’s voluntary family planning 

24 program saved the Thai Government more than $16. 


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1 (8) The growing global population and its con2 sumption patterns have profound consequences for 

3 the global environment, including species extinction, 

4 deforestation, desertification, climate change, and 

5 the destruction of natural ecosystems. These global 

6 environmental impacts pose a significant threat to 

7 the earth’s sustainability and impact the quality of 

8 life of humans in all regions of the world. 

9 (9) Demographic factors have been found to be 

10 linked to an increased likelihood of the outbreak of 

11 civil conflict during the 1990s. Countries in which 

12 young adults comprised more than 40 percent of the 

13 adult population were more than twice as likely as 

14 countries with lower proportions of young adults to 

15 the overall adult population to experience an out16 break of civil conflict. 

17 (10) The United Nations Population Fund 

18 (UNFPA) was created in 1969 with the support and 

19 assistance of the United States Government. Today, 

20 UNFPA is the largest multilateral source of fund21 ing, expertise, and programs targeted at voluntary 

22 family planning, promotion of safe delivery, reduc23 tion of maternal and infant mortality, and assisting 

24 women with sexual and reproductive health needs 

25 during natural and man-made emergencies. UNFPA 


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1 also actively works to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS 

2 and promote the rights, education, and livelihoods of 

3 women in developing countries. 

4 (11) UNFPA has family planning and repro5 ductive health programs in approximately 140 coun6 tries. The United States Agency for International 

7 Development operates population programs in about 

8 60 countries. 

9 (12) In 2006, 180 countries made financial con10 tributions to the UNFPA, including every nation in 

11 Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Af12 rica. This represents an increase from the 69 na13 tions that made contributions in 1999. The United 

14 States is the only developed nation not to make a 

15 contribution to UNFPA, and the only nation to ever 

16 withhold contributions for any reason other than 

17 budgetary considerations. 

18 (13) United States funding has been withheld 

19 from UNFPA since January 2002, despite the fact 

20 that Congress has appropriated funds for UNFPA 

21 for every fiscal year since January 2002 and the Ad22 ministration’s own Independent Assessment Team of 

23 2002 which found, ‘‘[N]o evidence that UNFPA has 

24 knowingly supported or participated in the manage25 ment of a program of coercive abortion or involunVerDate Aug 31 2005 22:35 Jun 09, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2604.IH H2604

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1 tary sterilization in the [People’s Republic of China]. 

2 We therefore recommend that not more than 

3 $34,000,000 which has already been appropriated be 

4 released to UNFPA.’’. 

5 (14) UNFPA’s pilot programs of assistance in 

6 China are proving—as they were designed to—the 

7 advantages of voluntary, informed, consent-based 

8 family planning over a top-down administrative ap9 proach. In 32 countries that receive UNFPA assist10 ance, maternal deaths have declined, births with 

11 skilled attendance have increased, knowledge of 

12 HIV/AIDS has risen, knowledge of more than three 

13 modern contraceptives has risen, knowledge of nat14 ural methods has increased, surgical contraception 

15 has dropped, abortion rates have dropped from 24 

16 per 1,000 women to 10 per 1,000 women, home17 based childbirths have fallen, and choice of contra18 ception by clients has grown. 

19 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con20 gress that the United States Government should resume 

21 annual contributions to UNFPA to facilitate the core mis22 sion of UNFPA to save and improve the lives of women, 

23 infants, and men and improve communities in foreign 

24 countries. 


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1 SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

2 It is the policy of the United States to provide finan3 cial and other support to the United Nations Population 

4 Fund to carry out activities to save women’s lives, limit 

5 the incidence of abortion and maternal mortality associ6 ated with unsafe abortion, promote universal access to 

7 safe and reliable family planning, and assist women, chil8 dren, and men in developing countries to live better lives. 

9 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF UNITED STATES VOLUNTARY 

10 CONTRIBUTION TO UNFPA. 

11 (a) VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION AUTHORIZED.—Not12 withstanding any other provision of law, the President is 

13 authorized to make a voluntary contribution on a grant 

14 basis to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 

15 on such terms and conditions as the President may deter16 mine, to provide financial or other support to UNFPA to 

17 carry out the activities described in subsection (b). 

18 (b) ACTIVITIES DESCRIBED.—The activities de19 scribed in this subsection are to— 

20 (1) provide and distribute equipment, medicine, 

21 and supplies, and expertise, including safe delivery 

22 kits and hygiene kits, to ensure safe childbirth and 

23 emergency obstetric care; 

24 (2) make available supplies of contraceptives for 

25 the prevention of pregnancy and sexually-trans26 mitted infections, including HIV/AIDS; 


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1 (3) reduce the incidence of abortion and mater2 nal mortality related to unsafe abortion; 

3 (4) reduce and eliminate coercive family plan4 ning practices, including coercive abortion and invol5 untary sterilization; 

6 (5) reduce and eliminate the incidence of sex 

7 selection; 

8 (6) prevent and treat cases of obstetric fistula; 

9 (7) promote abandonment of harmful tradi10 tional practices, including female genital cutting and 

11 child marriage; 

12 (8) reestablish maternal health services in areas 

13 where medical infrastructure and such services have 

14 been destroyed by natural disasters; and 

15 (9) promote the access of unaccompanied 

16 women and other vulnerable people to vital services, 

17 including access to water, sanitation facilities, food, 

18 and health care, in emergency situations. 

19 (c) WAIVER.—The President is authorized to make 

20 a voluntary contribution on a grant basis to UNFPA to 

21 provide financial or other support to UNFPA to carry out 

22 activities to respond to a natural or man-made emergency 

23 if the President determines that such activities will save 

24 human life or prevent or alleviate human suffering. 


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1 SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

2 (a) REPORT REQUIRED.—The President shall trans3 mit to the appropriate congressional committees on an an4 nual basis for each of the fiscal years 2008 through 2012 

5 a report on the implementation of this Act. 

6 (b) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.—The report re7 quired by subsection (a) shall include a detailed analysis 

8 of the scope, success, and value of activities of the United 

9 Nations Population Fund, with particular emphasis on the 

10 number of lives saved, the number of abortions prevented, 

11 and success in meeting the goals of the Program of Action 

12 of the International Conference on Population and Devel13 opment. 

14 (c) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘appro15 priate congressional committees’’ means— 

16 (1) the Committee on Appropriations and the 

17 Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep18 resentatives; and 

19 (2) the Committee on Appropriations and the 

20 Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate. 

21 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

22 To carry out this Act, there are authorized to be ap23 propriated to the President $50,000,000 for each of the 

24 fiscal years 2008 through 2012. 

Æ 


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