The head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Tuesday praised U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to restore funding for the agency, saying the renewed contributions will “improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV and Aids and provide family planning assistance in 154 countries.” “There are 200 million women who would like to plan their families but they have no access to family planning,” added Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, a Saudi national who has headed the agency since 2001. Former U.S president George W. Bush withheld some $240 million from the agency since 2001 as part of a policy which forbade government support for organizations that in any way fostered, provided or advised women about abortion. Obaid said the rate of women dying in childbirth declined a mere one percent from 1990 to 2001, with the vast majority of these deaths occurring in the developing world “If women are to stop dying in childbirth and if reproductive health for all is to become a reality, we need increased political and financial commitment at all levels to implement strategies that we know will work,” Obaid said. “With the renewed U.S. support to women and to UNFPA, the odds of that happening are greatly improved.” Obaid also said the Saudi government is donating $1.5 million to the agency to improve maternal health in the Gaza Strip where some 200 women give birth daily.
