United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) head Natalie Kanem said that while UN agencies acted at the direction of member states, her agency would not be deterred from their science-based work. In that year, the US government cut funding of approximately $70 million per year to the UNFPA over allegations the organisation "supports, or participate in the management of, a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization. That is part of a pattern of funding cuts experienced by the