The Bush administration’s attitude toward women’s health issues can be described in one word: inhumane. One glaring example of this was the 2002 decision to invoke the Kemp-Kasten amendment and withdraw funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Congress had appropriated $34 million to assist with the international funding of this program. UNFPA recognizes reproductive health as a human right and works with governments and nonprofit organizations to promote related health issues.

President Bush’s rationale for not fulfilling our contribution promise was based on the assertion that UNFPA supported coercive abortions in China. The State Department under his administration sent officials to China to investigate these allegations. The committee clearly stated in the first finding of their report, “We find no evidence that UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in the [People’s Republic of China].”

In fact, UNFPA supports the Programme of Action from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. The document states that “abortion should not be promoted as method of family planning.” President Bush decided to ignore the fact-finding mission of his State Department and instead sided with the allegations made by the far right of his party.

What does this funding loss mean to the populations UNFPA is trying to serve? The organization approximates such a shortage “result[s] in 2 million unwanted pregnancies per year, nearly 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths and 77,000 infant and child deaths.”

When I first read combating fistula was also part of UNFPA’s program, I didn’t know what it was. In case you aren’t familiar with the condition, obstetric fistula “usually occurs when a young [body not fully developed to handle childbirth], poor woman has an obstructed labor and cannot get a Caesarean section when needed. The baby usually dies. If the mother survives, she is left with extensive tissue damage to her birth canal that renders her incontinent.” The condition of incontinence usually results in being shunned or ostracized by her community. Reconstructive surgery has the potential to correct this condition with 90 percent effectiveness. The cost of this surgery is around $350.

It is more than disheartening that President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress can justify including in their energy bill $180 million for a strip mall so Shreveport, La., can get its first Hooters Restaurant but finds it immoral to fund an organization that has a “Campaign to End Fistula.”