Rep. Smith: Obama Gave $227M to UNFPA Implementing Forced Abortion in China

10/11/2014

Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday that despite his and other congressmens’ efforts to hold Communist China accountable for its one-child, forced abortion policy, President Barack Obama and his administration are not only ignoring the policy but are advancing the “brutal program.”

“I respectfully submit that not only is the Obama administration turning a blind eye to the atrocities being committed under the one-child policy, but it is even contributing financial support--contrary to U.S. law--to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),” Smith said in a keynote address at the event.

“Under Presidents Reagan, Bush and Bush, Mr. Obama, unlike them, has thus far provided $227 million in tax payer funds--grant money--to the UNFPA, an organization that supports, plans, implements, defends--and maybe for international audiences this is most important--whitewashes the Chinese government’s brutal program.”

Smith, who is on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and chairs its subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization, was referring to his and other Republicans’ 1984 legislation that became law as a part of a foreign aid bill that prohibits funding organizations  like UNFPA that support China’s one-child and forced abortion policy.

President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk at the Annenberg Retreat of the Sunnylands estate, June 8, 2013, in Rancho Mirage, Calif.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

“For over three decades, the UNFPA has consistently heaped praise on China’s population control program and repeatedly urged other countries to embrace similar policies,” Smith said in his prepared remarks.

Earlier in his remarks Smith said he asked Hillary Clinton at a hearing when she was Secretary of State whether she or Obama raised the issue of forced abortion in China when they were meeting with (former) President Hu Jintao when he visited Washington.

“She refused to answer it, said she’ll get back – the record is still open and still no response,” said Smith.

“Before or since, there is nothing in the record to suggest that President Obama has ever raised the plight of Chinese women being compelled to undergo abortion with Hu, Xi Jinping (General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party) or anyone else. So much for the cheap sophistry of choice.”

A panel discussion at the event included Reggie Littlejohn, whose group Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, leads an international effort to protect Chinese women and their unborn children. To date, her “Save a Girl” campaign has rescued 120 baby girls in China.

(AP image/photo)

Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese lawyer and human rights activist who was jailed and tortured for his efforts to help Chinese women who faced forced abortion, was also on the panel.

Littlejohn and Smith were on the forefront of efforts to free Chen, who now has asylum in the United States.

In the Q. and A. portion of the event, Smith said he was “appalled at the indifference” when it comes to the ongoing slaughter of unborn children in China, specifically girls, who are often aborted in favor of having the sole child allowed per couple to be a male.

Littlejohn said that as many as 200 million female are missing from the world population because of sex-selection abortions or abandonment.

“Where are the women’s rights groups on this?” Smith said.

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