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Ireland hikes family-planning aid
Other countries join to replace lost US funds
A press release from the United Nations Population Fund has trumpeted the news that Ireland has pledged nearly to double its funding for family-planning efforts of the UN—responding to a budget shortfall created when US President George W. Bush cut off American government funding for efforts that promote legal abortion.
Ireland pledged to raise its contribution from $1.2 million this year to $2.3 million in 2003. The UNFPA press release also indicated that Norway had pledged to raise its contribution from $23 million last year to $24.3 million this year. “These substantial increases are a boost to our efforts to provide reproductive health services to women and men in the developing countries, where the needs are the greatest,” said UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid.
Dana Rosemary Scallon, a former presidential candidate and popular singer in Ireland who is currently a member of the European Parliament, reacted with dismay to the announcement. “Taxpayers’ money should never be used to promote or support abortion,” she argued. Scallon also noted that such funding was “at variance with the Irish Constitution.”
Abortion rate increases
Pro-life groups blame new legislation
Abortion statistics reported in Ireland demonstrate the failure of a 1995 law supposedly aimed at reducing abortions, according to pro-life groups.
The statistics showed that there were 4,921 Irish women reported traveling abroad to abort their babies by September 2000, compared to 3,444 for the same period in 1999. The Pro-Life Campaign blamed the results on liberal legislation enacted in 1995 known as the Abortion Information Act.
“The Act which made it legal to provide the names and addresses of abortion clinics and for clinics to advertise in Irish newspapers has singularly failed in the then government’s stated intention of reducing abortions,” said a spokesman for the pro-life group. The year 1999 saw the largest number of Irish babies—6,226—aborted, but a new high will probably be announced when the figures from 2000 become available.