Letters to the Editor: Please, President-elect Trump, don’t cut funding to the U.N. Population Fund

To the editor: In 2002, I read the State of World Population report of the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, which named Nigeria as having a total fertility rate of more than seven children per woman. Those seven children per woman, if they’ve all survived (which they haven’t), are now young adults, and probably some are in the stampedes for food given out by charities described in the Associated Press article you published.

According to UNFPA, the fertility rate has since fallen to about five children per woman, a still unsustainable number. It portends high maternal mortality, unsafe abortions, lack of access to family planning, gender inequality, political instability and misery. When the world takes care of women, women take care of the world.

I started the group 34 Million Friends of UNFPA in 2002 when then-President George W. Bush vetoed the $34-million Congress had appropriated to the agency. At the time, Donald Trump was on an honorary committee (with me!) supporting UNFPA.

I can’t help but surmise that Elon Musk may well target UNFPA for his budget cuts. Will the president-elect go along?

Jane Roberts, Redlands