112901 UNFPA Abortion Zealots Target Women Of Afghanistan

By STEVEN MOSHER

FRONT ROYAL, Va. - The Population Research Institute (PRI) has confirmed that operatives working for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) are on the ground in Afghanistan, and have been distributing abortion devices and chemicals - disguised in kits marked for safe delivery - in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran.

Given the great unmet need for food, shelter, water, and basic health supplies - along with strong opposition to abortion throughout the Islamic world UNFPA:s Afghan refugee operations are gaining little ground against the intended recipients.

Early reports confirm that war traumatized refugees, approached by UNFPA workers pandering abortion services, wander away quickly. And a few brave refugees, in an attempt to protect their female population and progeny, have confiscated morning-after abortion pills provided by UNFPA.

UNFPA offers only abortion and "family planning" services to Afghan women and their families. Infant and maternal mortality rates rank among the highest in the world in this refugee setting, yet basic life-saving aid from UNFPA remains in want.

The immediate goal for UNFPA is to break down cultural resistance to abortion and contraception within the refugee camps. UNFPA's long-term goal is to establish permanent operations in Afghanistan. In conjunction with international

abortion providers Marie Stopes and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), UNFPA plans to spend an estimated total of $20 million for abortion services within Afghanistan over the next few years.

In this way, establishing permanent operations from a refugee setting, UNFPA's campaign against Afghan refugees resembles its 1999 campaign aimed at Kosovar refugee women. PRI interviewed several Kosovar women in Pristina who described the "genocidal" function of UNFPA:s abortion services as a "White Plague" (see: The Kosovo File: www.pop.org/ kosovo/kosovofile.htm).

During investigations of UNFPA operations in refugee settings, PRI discovered that abortions were conducted without adequate informed consent.

War trauma and Taliban atrocities now provide UNFPA with the opportunity to engage in coercive family planning programs in Afghanistan, under the guise of women's health.

In Washington just before Thanksgiving, negotiations on the FY 2002 foreign aid bill ground to a halt because of controversies surrounding UNFPA. The bill, totaling more than $15 billion, contains millions for life-saving aid for Afghanistan women and children. Tragically, however, this bill also contains tens of millions for UNFPA, an organization which promotes coercive abortion and sterilization in China (see: www.pop.org/china/).