Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Incoming president Barack Obama is considered very likely to restore funding to the UNFPA soon after he takes office in January. However, a group that has been the top monitor of the UN agency says Obama would be forcing taxpayers to fund a group involved in forced abortions if he does.

As LifeNews.com has reported, the Obama campaign confirmed to a pro-abortion web site that he would restore funding for the UNFPA, which has been found to have participated in the China family planning program that prohibits families in the Asian nation from having more than one child.

The coercive policy also includes forced abortions and forced sterilizations, and has seen Chinese population control officials remove offenders from their jobs, harass family members and required forced labor or imprisonment for those violating the policy.

The Population Research Institute, whose groundbreaking investigation in China led the Bush administration to cut the funding, tells LifeNews.com it stands by its affirmation that the UNFPA was, and continues to be, involved in coercive abortions in China.

"Our investigation remains valid," says Colin Mason, PRI’s media director.

"We put boots on the ground, and made the results available to anyone who wanted them. Those who would disregard our findings show an appalling lack of respect for human rights," he explains.

PRI's initial report, entitled "UNFPA, China, and Coercive Family Planning," is based on an investigation conducted by PRI researchers in China's Sihui County.

Relying on interviews with over two dozen victims and witnesses, the 2001 investigation found that coercive abortion and sterilization practices were taking place where the UNFPA had supposedly instituted a "client-centered and voluntary family planning program."

In fact, PRI's investigation discovered that the UNFPA shared an office with the very Chinese family planning officials who were carrying out forced abortions.

Prompted by this investigation, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell sent his own research team to China, which independently verified the facts that PRI had gathered.

Afterwards, Powell wrote, "I determined that UNFPA's support of, and involvement in, China's population-planning activities allowed the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion."

Powell himself urged that the U.S. government stop funding the UNFPA.

"President-elect Obama and his supporters blame the Bush administration for this decision," says Steven Mosher, the president of the Population Research Institute. "But in fact it was Colin Powell, who is no friend of social conservatives and who recently endorsed Obama for President, who made this call."

"It would be a shame if Obama abandons both the women of China--and one of his most high-profile backers--in the name of the failed ideology of population control," Mosher told LifeNews.com.

"Americans don't want their money going to an organization--the UNFPA--which works hand-in-glove with China's population control police as they drag women off for forced abortions and forced sterilizations."

The Obama campaign, in an October 2007 response to a survey from the pro-abortion RH Reality Check web site, confirmed the presidential candidate would restore funding to the controversial group.

"If elected president, would Sen. Obama, overturn the Global Gag Rule or reinstate funding for UNFPA," the web site asked.

"Yes, Senator Obama would overturn the global gag rule and reinstate funding for UNFPA," Obama's campaign responded.

President Bush has revoked funding for the UNFPA every year during his administration for violating a U.S. law prohibiting sending public funds to groups that promote forced abortions.

Related web sites:
Population Research Institute - http://www.pop.org
PRI YouTube video about UNFPA - http://www.youtube.com/colinpri1

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