American Notes Abortion

Right-to-life groups in the U.S. had been pressing the Reagan Administration since 1984 to cut back its contribution to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. Reason: some of the U.N. money was used for forced abortions in China. Last year the antiabortion forces and their allies in Congress succeeded in getting $10 million withheld. Last week their victory became complete. Officials for the Agency for International Development said the entire 1986 U.S. contribution of $25 million would be held back.

The Administration became convinced that despite Chinese assertions to the contrary, pregnant women were still being coerced into having abortions. Says Sharon Camp, vice president of the Population Crisis Committee, an international family-planning group: "I would guess what may still be going on is a woman who is pregnant with her second child has ten people come over to her house every night and talk to her until she has an abortion. But in the Chinese mind, that's not coercion. That's persuasion."