`34 Million Friends'......who wish that you not reproduce

Officially, the funding for the United Nations main family-planning agency comes from 131 nations. Unofficially, it comes from those nations, plus at least 40,000 citizens of the only major country that does not contribute to the agency's budget--the United States.

Last summer, the Bush administration decided to withhold a $34 million appropriation for the UN Population Fund, an agency that has run afoul of Republican presidents for its alleged support of China's draconian population-control policy, which includes coerced abortions.

That decision angered Lois Abraham of Taos, N.M., and Jane Roberts of Redlands, Calif.--two women who had never met but who simultaneously decided to start a fundraising campaign to replace the lost millions.

After a slow start, momentum for their "34 Million Friends" campaign has accelerated recently, and now the UN agency in New York is flooded with 2,000 letters a day. As of Thursday, it had received nearly $447,000 in about 40,000 envelopes, some of which contained donations from more than one person.

And while we’re at it........how about looking up women’s issues in that Vatican glossary.

Roberts, who has been active in women's issues for many years, started a letter-writing campaign to women's groups across the country. She calls the 34 Million Friends effort "an exercise in outraged democracy."