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The United Nations Population Fund and the Illicit Promotion of Abortion

At its founding in 1969, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) had a core mission of restricting population growth in the name of humanitarian and economic development for the developing world. In more recent years, its stated mission has shifted to focus on the advancement of human rights, although its fundamental aims remain unchanged. While UNFPA has a clear mandate to eliminate recourse to abortion, and is prohibited from promoting abortion, its history is fraught with examples of how it illicitly promotes abortion under the guise of human rights, specifically reproductive rights—a euphemism used at the UN to refer to abortion. This paper examines the various methods UNFPA has used to promote its abortion agenda at the UN, and explains why the blatant abuse of its mandate and its coercive tactics to gain the support of Member States for its agenda is grounds for defunding the Agency.