Representative Carolyn Maloney (Democrat-New York,) whose district covers the United Nations, introduced a bill this month which would restore the US voluntary contribution to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the largest internationally funded source of population assistance to developing countries. The Maloney bill states, "As a result of the withdrawal of the United States contribution to UNFPA as of 1999, it is estimated that 870,000 women in the developing world will be deprived of effective modern contraception, leading to 500,000 unintended pregnancies, 234,000 births, 200,000 abortions, and thousands of maternal and child deaths." The forum - "Moving Forward: Implementing the Cairo Agenda" - will highlight Maloney's leadership in support of the right to reproductive health care.

US funding to UNFPA was discontinued as of 1999 in response to objections in Congress over China's one-child policy. While in the past there have been disturbing allegations of forced abortion and sterilization in China's family planning programs, UNFPA addressed this problem by instituting new programs in 32 counties in China aimed at abolishing quotas and providing a broader range of reproductive health services.

UNFPA supports the principle, endorsed by the world community at the International Conference on Population and Development five years ago in Cairo, that all couples and individuals have the basic human right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have the information, education and means to do so.

For the past week, non-governmental organizations from around the world have been meeting at the UN to review commitments made to reproductive health and rights at the Cairo Conference in 1994. Ruth Walkup, Legislative Fellow, Office of U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney, will be a featured speaker at tomorrow's forum.

Additional topics include topics related to implementation of the Cairo agenda: the global politics and opposition, reproductive rights as human rights, successes and failures, and the role of donors. Additional speakers include: Anika Rahman, Center for Reproductive Rights, Mabel Bianco, Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer, Ambassador Lars-Olof Edström, Sweden, Kathy Hall Martinez, Center for Reproductive Rights, and Bene Madunagu, Girls Power Initiative.