Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said he hopes that the new US president would seek an early review of the US decision to stop funding to the UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund on global population and reproductive health which critics say promotes abortion, something the agency denies.

Mr Coveney was speaking during a web-based public event hosted by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA).

At its founding in 1969, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) had a core mission of restricting population growth in the name of ‘humanitarian and economic development’ for the developing world. In more recent years, its stated mission has shifted to focus on the advancement of human rights, specifically, ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’. ‘Reproductive rights’ are often defined to include abortion.

The Trump administration cut the funding in 2017, because it had determined that UNFPA helps to support a Chinese government family planning program that forces people to get abortions and sterilisations.

In a statement, UNFPA countered that the claim was “erroneous,” asserting that “all of its work promotes the human rights of individuals and couples to make their own decisions, free of coercion or discrimination.” The statement added that U.N. member states “have long described UNFPA’s work in China as a force for good.”