Dear Colleague:
The week after pro-life Latin Americans achieved a major success in
Colombia, another one has occurred in Peru, thanks to the efforts of PRI's
Carlos Polo. He has been waiting 20 years for this breakthrough.
Steven W. Mosher
President
PRI Weekly Briefing
16 December 2005
Vol. 7 / No. 49
Getting the U.S. Out of Abortion
By Joseph A. D'Agostino
In another gift just in time for Christmas, the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) has imposed sanctions on two groups in
Peru that used American tax money to promote the legalization of the
morning-after pill (MAP) in that country. Each will have to return part
of its grant as a punishment for violating USAID policy. In response to
information and a complaint from PRI's Latin American Director Carlos
Polo, USAID decided to penalize the groups. Peru's constitution protects
life from conception on, and a Peruvian court has declared that MAP, as an
abortion-inducing drug, cannot be sold there.
USAID grantees have been promoting abortion, including MAP, in many
countries for a long time now. The federal government's Mexico City
policy prohibits the use of federal money for the promotion of any changes
in abortion laws overseas, but this provision of law is often
circumvented. In any case, USAID follows FDA policy, which classifies MAP
as "emergency contraception" rather than as an abortifacient, even though
many of MAP's medical promoters acknowledge that it sometimes causes an
abortion rather than prevents conception.
However, USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health Kent Hill wrote
in a December 13 letter to Polo that it is USAID policy to remain neutral
on what he calls "emergency contraceptive pills" (ECPs) in Peru because
"this issue has proven particularly controversial" in that country. As
Carlos Polo says, "The point is not what the U.S. government thinks about
ECPs but Peruvians' laws and thinking." The two grantees from which USAID
is seeking a so-far-unspecified amount of money are the Peruvian
ombudsman's office, called Defensoria del Pueblo, and a major Peruvian
feminist group, Mañuela Ramos, which has received tens of millions of
dollars in USAID funding.
The precedent set here is a big one. "We are the first organization to
tell USAID about these activities with documented evidence and a
strategy," Polo said. "During the last 20 years, I saw many complaints
about USAID but no results. To the contrary, USAID officials saw pro-life
groups as enemies denouncing USAID without much evidence."
Mañuela Ramos produces a television program called "Women's Bar" that Hill
found violated USAID policy by promoting MAP. "We have been fighting
against Mañuela Ramos and Defensoria for the last three years," Polo
noted. "There have been a lot of 'Women's Bar' programs about MAP. The
video we showed this time to USAID began with a phrase of the feminist
moderator, 'I am tired of talking about this.'"
Polo hopes that this action by USAID will lead to more "respect for laws
and customs of local people." Needless to say, pro-life people in Latin
America and elsewhere do not receive a good impression of the United
States when American government money is used to promote abortifacients in
their countries.
The unfortunate reality is that in Peru, USAID was at the creation when it
came to population control. "USAID funded the beginning of 'family
planning,' now 'reproductive health,' programs as companies gave samples
to promote their products," Polo explained. "They said it was
international cooperation, but we now see clearly it was a business.
Because now we Peruvians have to pay for the programs and contraceptives.
And we will have to pay the consequences--aging people, scarcity of young
people and workers, problems with women's health, etc."
Pro-life groups in other countries should monitor the activities of
U.S.-funded feminist and environmentalist organizations. If these groups
promote the morning-after pill or other forms of abortion, they should
document the activity and submit the evidence along with a complaint to
USAID. We'd be happy to help. In the meantime, we thank USAID for taking
this action and hope other grantees will take serious notice. If you use
U.S. funds to promote abortion or changes in local laws protecting life,
you may have to give the money back.
Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the
Population Research Institute.
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PRI
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Front Royal, Va. 22630
USA
Phone: (540) 622-5240 Fax: (540) 622-2728
Email: jad@pop.org
Media Contact: Joseph A. D'Agostino
(540) 622-5240, ext. 204
Website: www.pop.org
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The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human
rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending
counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of
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