The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said it regretted the decision by the United States to deny any future funding for its life-saving work the world over.

This decision is as the UNFPA called based on the erroneous claim that UNFPA “supports, or participates in the management of, a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization” in China. "The UNFPA refutes this claim, as all of its work promotes the human rights of individuals and couples to make their own decisions, free of coercion or discrimination. Indeed, United Nations Member States have long described UNFPA’s work in China as a force for good," the organisation said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The US, one of our founding members, has long partnered with UNFPA to protect and promote the reproductive health and rights of women and girls, thereby fostering healthier women and girls and their families, according to the statement.

Stating that the support UNFPA received over the years from the US Government and people has saved tens of thousands of mothers from preventable deaths and disabilities, and especially now in the rapidly developing global humanitarian crises, the UNFPA went on to say that with previous US contributions, it was combating gender-based violence and reducing the scourge of maternal deaths in the world’s most fragile settings, in areas of conflict and natural disasters, including Iraq, Nepal, Sudan, Syria, the Philippines, Ukraine and Yemen.

The UNFPA has always valued the US as a trusted partner and leader in helping to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

It therefore, look forward to continuing our work with the US to address these global concerns and to restore such strong partnership to save the lives of women and girls globally, within the framework of the global development goals, thereby leaving no one behind, the organisation said . RSS