Jeff Bingaman: “now I will focus on the U.N. population fund. Last year I voted for the Foreign Operations conference report. I thought…”

“now I will focus on the U.N. population fund. Last year I voted for the Foreign Operations conference report. I thought the funds provided there were inadequate to meet our pressing needs as we talked about them, but I recognized that the roughly $15 billion would provide help to millions of desperately poor people around the world and at the same time help improve the short-term and long-term security of our own country. I voted for that bill. Here we are 7 months later and some of the most important funding provided in that bill, the $34 million provided for the U.N. population fund, is still sitting at the Department of Treasury. It is not helping poor people. It is not helping to make America more secure. It is just sitting at the Treasury Department. The United Nations population fund works in over 150 countries, where it helps give women around the world access to reproductive health care and family planning services as well as services to ensure safe pregnancy and delivery. This population fund, the U.N. population fund, plays a critical role in helping prevent the further spread of AIDS. The withholding of U.S. funds, which is what we as a country are engaged in right now, only exacerbates the general inadequate health of poor women worldwide. It leads to more unwanted pregnancies and to deaths of more and more women during childbirth.”