USAID to sto providing US
contraceptives to MSI Charity- 03
Oct 2008 Source: PA News
Family
planning charity Marie Stopes International has blasted the Bush administration for
telling six African governments to stop giving it US-donated contraceptives.
The move by
the US State Department and US Agency (USAID) for International Development
affects Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
USAID says
Marie Stopes is a major player in a United Nations programme in China that, the
Bush administration says, promotes coerced abortion and sterilisation.
"Given
these circumstances, USAID made the policy decision to inform governments in
these countries that it does not want USAID-funded commodities to be provided
to Marie Stopes International," the State Department, which oversees
USAID, said.
The US does
not give any direct assistance to the group but is a leading family planning
health provider and one of several distributors of US-donated
"contraceptive commodities", including condoms and intrauterine
devices, in some of Africa's least-developed countries.
Under US
law, the GAG Rule (Kemp-Kasten Amendment), the government must withhold aid to agencies and groups found
to support or participate in management of family planning programmes abroad
that involve abortion or coerced sterilisation.
But MSI, one
of the world's largest family planning organisations, said the move was
"purely political" and dangerous because it could result in more
abortions, maternal deaths and health problems for poor African women and
girls.
"Only
the Bush administration could find logic in the idea that they can somehow
reduce abortion and promote choice for women in China by causing more abortion
and gutting choice for women in Africa," it said.
The Bush Administration reviewed
UNFPA’s activities in 2001 and determined they did not violate the Kemp-Kasten
Amendment, nevertheless they canceled $34 million funding, repeating the
prohibition each year after
According the
news reports, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
has issued a new directive requiring several African countries to stop
providing United States-funded contraceptives to Marie Stopes International
(MSI), one of the world’s leading abortion providers.
USAID decided to take action and pull support for MSI in Africa because of the
organization’s collaboration with China’s draconian population program.
Under US law, any organization that “supports or participates in the management
of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization” is prohibited
from receiving American foreign aid. This law, also known as the Kemp-Kasten
amendment, has been used since 2002 to deny funding to United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA).
The possibility that other complicit groups would also be affected was hinted
at by the US State Department a few weeks ago when it once more withheld funds
from UNFPA.
The US government informed Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and
Zimbabwe that it did not want any USAID-funded contraceptives to be provided to
Marie Stopes International.
Chilean president
Michelle Bachelet pushed for an initiative in Latin America and the Caribbean
for better access to reproductive health services." As a candidate, she
pledged not to overturn Chile's laws banning abortion on demand.
The differences
between Republican and Democrat platforms on UN treaties concern the rights of
women and access to abortion are widely apart.
The AP reports that the US does not give any direct assistance
to MSI, but that the organization is a leading family planning health provider
in Africa and one of several distributors of US-donated contraceptive
commodities, like condoms and intrauterine devices.
MSI chief executive Dana Hovig denied the allegations of cooperating with
forced abortions in China, stating, “To the contrary, MSI is one of the few
organizations that has worked over the past decade to increase the availability
of voluntary, client-centered family planning services in China.” He blasted
the USAID decision as “purely political and dangerous to the lives of women.”
The US State Department and USAID have said that the directive only affects MSI
and that the same amount of US-donated contraceptives would be distributed in
the African nations by other groups.
Marie Stopes has been a long-time advocate for abortion rights worldwide. For
the past year, MSI has been collecting signatures for their “Global Safe
Abortion” campaign which demands “for women’s access to legal, safe abortion to
be recognized as a fundamental human right.” Pro-life initiatives to counter
MSI’s campaign have also been launched.
USAID denies funding to international
abortion group complicit in coercive abortions
.- Assistant
Administrator for Global Health Dr. Kent Hill with the U.S. Agency for
International Development has denied funding to the UK-based abortion
organization Marie Stopes International (MSI) on the grounds that it is
complicit in “coercive abortion and involuntary sterilizations” in China.
MSI
has denied the accusations, the Population Research Institute (PRI) reports in
its weekly briefing.
PRI
president Steven W. Mosher applauded the decision, saying MSI’s “aggressive
promotion of abortion, and its longstanding collaboration with China's coercive
program leave little doubt that it is not only aware of the massive human
rights abuses that have resulted in that country, but is actively collaborating
with it.”
According
to Mosher, the USAID decision will cut back MSI’s population control programs
in a number of African countries, including Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.
MSI
claimed that the lack of funding would leave African women few options besides
abortion.
Mosher
responded to this claim, calling it “particularly risible, coming as it does
from the very agency that is responsible for many of the abortions that are
performed in Africa in the first place.”
He
also claimed that PRI investigations have revealed that MSI is “one of the
biggest abortion actors in Kenya.”
Mosher
praised USAID’s decision, saying:
“The
Bush Administration is to be congratulated for its consistent enforcement of a
policy that is supported by the vast majority of the American people--a policy
in which PRI is proud to have played a part--and which benefits women and girls
by defunding predatory agencies which seek to rob them of their fertility.
Marie Stopes International needs to decide what its purpose is: performing
abortions, often in violation of national laws, or providing legitimate health
care to women.”
Mosher
explained that the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, passed during the Reagan presidential
administration, prohibits U.S. foreign aid from funding any organization that
“supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion
or involuntary sterilization.”
President
Ronald Reagan first invoked the law to deny funding to the United Nations
Population Fund (UNPFA) because of its complicity with China’s one-child policies,
Mosher said in the PRI briefing.
The
George W. Bush Administration reviewed UNFPA’s activities in 2001 and
determined they did not violate the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, granting it $21.5
million. In 2002, the Bush Administration canceled $34 million, repeating the
prohibition each year after, because of evidence provided by PRI showing that
the organization was involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.