Global Monitor

We apologize for the offensiveness of any of the following material. The PRI Review is publishing these materials in order to reveal the extreme nature of some of these programs.

POPULATION INDUSTRY TOLD TO DOUBLE OUTLAYS BY THE YEAR 2000

A recent study commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated that the annual funding of population control programs will have to double from the current $4.5 billion level to $9 billion by the year 2000.

The study recommends that government assistance must increase from $589 million (1988) to $3.5 billion by the year 2000. Users of birth control services, who presently pay $500 million per year will have to pay $1 billion of “out-of-pocket expenses for these services.” Also, population loans from the World Bank will have to increase to $500 million annually by the year 2000. Funding by NGOs and private foundations would be required to increase from $230 million per year to $1 billion at the same time.1

SPAIN USES POP MUSIC TO PROMOTE CONDOMS

The Spanish Department of Health and Social Welfare initiated a 600 million peseta (US $6 MILLION) condom campaign using popular musicians. Such groups as Semen Up, Loquillo y los Trogloditas (Crazy One and the Troglodytes), and Gabinete Caligari have rerecorded their hit songs, which now declare “I went to bed with you after having had a few swigs of rum. It would have been more practical to use a prophylactic, because now, with that belly, you’re just not as passionate.” And, “In order to be happy, I use a condom. Before I forget it and a virus leaves it limp.” And, “First open up the little bag, then take out the little rubber. See how easy it is? Put it on carefully. That way, no microbes, germs or hassles can get through … You’re doing it very well, very well, very well.”

The songs in the campaign will be broadcast on FM radio stations. The campaign slogan “Put it on yourself, put it on your partner” will be featured on radio and television advertisements and billboards. The slogan will appear on specially designed packaging for the condoms to be distributed through the Youth Institute, a division of the Department of Social Welfare. T-shirts, stickers, pins and brochures will be distributed through drug stores, schools, and the Institute for Women (IW). The IW will also be involved in organizing pilot programs to finance and improve access to gynecological consultations for teenagers.2

CANADIAN CONTRASTS: EASY ABORTION ACCESS VS. DECLINING BIRTHRATES

Ontario Health Minister Evelyn Gigantes has said that her ministry will fully fund free-standing abortion clinics. She plans to increase the number of those clinics in Ontario by speeding up the licensing process under the Independent Health Facilities Act. Gigantes promised to “actively recruit and train physicians to provide abortion services.”3

At the same time Canada’s Immigration Minister Barbara McDougall presented a five-year plan that was expected to call for an increase in immigration of more than 40%, to some 250,000 people a year. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s government has been studying increasing immigration levels because of concerns about Canada’s declining birthrate. The University of Western Ontario estimates that at the current birthrate of 1.55 children per couple and the present level of immigration, Canada’s population of 26 million will begin to decline in 2030.4

HONDURAS SUCCESSFULLY RESISTS IUD DISTRIBUTION

A powerful mass-media campaign in Honduras attacking ‘family planning’ and a decline in sales staff caused the termination of an IUD project planned by the Asociacion Hondurena de Planificacion Familiar (ASHONPLAFA).

The objective was to test the impact of making IUDs available in pharmacies, the direct sale of IUDs to physicians by a pharmaceutical salesperson and a mass media promotion throughout Honduras using television and radio. IUDs and educational pamphlets were distributed to pharmacies; a data base was developed to manage the list of physicians needing training as well as sales information; nineteen physicians were trained in IUD insertion and information seminars were organized for them.

The project, which had a budget of $47,111, completed sales of 554 IUDs, with 61 sold to private physicians. When the project failed, the funds were used to conduct a seminar for ASHONPLAFA staff and other contraceptive providers.5

SYRIA: MUSLIM LEADER CALLS FOR BIRTH CONTROL

During a Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival held in Moscow from January 15–19, 1990, Syria’s Grand Mufti, Sheik Ahmad Kuftaro, claimed that Islam has set a limit to population; that increase in family members is not fixed and unchangeable, and that family size must follow the dictates of the welfare of society and the welfare of the family itself.6

Since 1976, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) has invested a total of $13.7 million in population control programs within the Syrian Arab Republic. The executing agencies of these programs included UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO, UNDP and UNFPA.7

In addition, the Syrian Family Planning Association accepted grants from the International Planned Parenthood Federation for 1988 of (actual) $255,700 and 1989 (approved) $285,000.8

ABORTION HARDER TO OBTAIN IN THE NEW POLAND

While communism is being dismantled in Poland, a coalition which includes the Catholic Church, Solidarity and Polish patriot groups are moving swiftly to reverse abortion policies inherited from the Communist Party.

Under the Communist Party’s 1956 abortion law, abortions have been legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, in cases of a threat to the woman’s health, fetal deformities, rape or “difficult living conditions.”

In mid-May, the Ministry of Health issued new rules restricting access to legal abortions, inviting doctors to stop doing them entirely. The rules require a woman to get permission for an abortion from two and sometimes three physicians. Any of them can refuse to sign off on an abortion if they disagree with the woman’s reasons for wanting one.

The new regulation also gave doctors the right to refuse to perform abortions. Press spokesman Antoni Bielewicz predicted that 75 percent would do so. By August, the major teaching hospital in Cracow, two smaller hospitals and many individual doctors had done just that.9

STERILIZATION CAMPS IN INDIA

A letter in the British medical journal Lancet describes the conditions in India’s sterilization camps;

“In these camps, laparoscopes are reused after a quick wash and exposure to formaldehyde vapour for 10 minutes. The pneumoperitoneum is created by pumping air (not carbon dioxide) via a syringe or rubber bulb (or bicycle pump). Transvaginal uterine manipulations are often left to untrained staff, and this probably accounts for the high incidence of uterine perforations. Complications are rife and the case fatality rate is as high as 70 per 100,000. Many complications can be attributed to inexperienced operators and the rapid turnover. One general surgeon describes how he had to rescue an inexperienced doctor looking for the tubes in the opened urinary bladder on one occasion and in an opened loop of bowel on another.”

“Local authorities are under pressure to achieve set targets and the doctors are paid on a case basis … inducements (cash or otherwise) are routinely sanctioned to candidates for sterilisation, and the motivator is similarly rewarded; the organizational structure is insufficient; and informed consent is certainly not obtained. Many gynaecologists pride themselves on the number of sterilisations they do.”

“Available data suggest a failure rate of 1%; and ectopic pregnancies account for 15–60% of these; 4 1/4 million tubal ligations were done in India in 1985–86, and the target for 1988–89 was 5 million. We can expect 4000–5000 ectopic pregnancies as a result of these procedures. Since most would arise in rural areas where blood transfusion and emergency surgery services are inadequate, the resulting deaths would have to be set against deaths from unwanted pregnancies that were avoided.”10

MODEL U.S. AID ENTERPRISE PROGRAM IN MEXICO

Industrias Unidas, S.A. (IUSA) operates a major factory at Pasteje, State of Mexico. The factory complex has 6,000 employees; half are female and most of them are 18–25 years old. Most belong to indigenous rural groups demographically characterized by high birth rates.

Following the U.S. AID “Enterprise” model, factory management kept detailed records of pregnancy rates. According to the company estimate, the average rate of pregnancies for four years was estimated at 11.68% of the female workforce per year with a peso figure of 37,000,000 cost to the company of time lost.

IUSA therefore incorporated contraceptive education as a requirement of the complex’s training system: a monthly course (12 months) of 8 sessions (2 per week) was required for all new recruits; all professionals or semi-professionals were required to attend a birth regulation course of twelve sessions for one and a half months; and two birth regulation courses per year were required for all student’s in the companies’ technical high school.

A social worker, who was responsible for birth regulation promotion and counseling, acted as liaison between the educational courses and direct services. The services included IUD insertion, contraception distribution and Natural Family Planning. Clients interested in sterilization were referred to the Social Security Hospital in Toluca or to the MEXFAM clinic (IPPF).

Since the IUSA’s program is a pilot project that links birth regulation services to cost-savings for the company, the on-going evaluation of the program will be complemented by an examination of the profitability to the firm.11