August 5, 2005
Volume 7 / Number 30
Dear Colleague:
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Population Services
International (PSI) are attempting to introduce the morning-after pill, an
early-acting form of chemical abortion, around Latin America. PRI's Latin
American office is hard at work meeting this new threat to life.
Steven W. Mosher
President
PRI Weekly Briefing
5 August 2005
Vol. 7 / No. 30
Abortifacient's Advances and Retreats in Latin America
Officially anti-abortion Latin American governments continue to legalize,
or even promote, the morning-after pill (MAP) in their nations while
claiming that MAP does not cause abortion. But since MAP sometimes acts
after conception by preventing implantation, the use of MAP can kill an
unborn child. By redefining pregnancy to begin at implantation, these
governments-and the organizations such as the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) and Population Services International (PSI) which are behind
them-can claim that MAP does not cause abortion, and can therefore be
distributed in countries where abortion is illegal or even
unconstitutional. They deceive anti-abortion Latin Americans into
believing that MAP is a form of contraception.
In fact, emergency contraception, or EC, is the preferred term for MAP
among the population control/family planning establishment. In Latin
America's most influential country, Mexico, the government has announced
its intention to distribute MAP in government clinics. *The government
wants to distribute the morning-after pill at public health centers,* says
Carlos Polo, director of PRI's Latin American office in Lima, Peru. *Some
pro-life organizations and some Catholic bishops are protesting. Cardinal
Rivera of Mexico City made a protest.*
Pro-lifers are deploying three arguments against MAP in Mexico, where
abortion is outlawed by the constitution itself, said Polo. *First, it's
proved that the morning-after pill is abortifacient,* he said. *Second,
there are other, more important needs in public health. Third, the
marketing of the morning-after pill will lead to more sexual activity
among young people.* The Mexican supreme court may have to settle the
controversy. (All of these problems are discussed in detail on the
Spanish-language PRI-supported website, tercerefecto.com, which has become
a key resource for pro-lifers throughout Latin America.)
International organizations that receive U.S. taxpayer money such as PSI
promote the falsehood that MAP (or EC for emergency contraception in
their parlance) does not cause abortion. *EC is not abortion and is not
an abortion pill, nor is it an effective contraceptive for on-going use,*
states PSI flatly. *Put simply, if a woman is already pregnant when she
takes EC, the pregnancy will not be disrupted. Like other contraceptives,
EC offers another way to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and thereby reduce
demand for abortion. However, because it is not as reliable as regular
contraceptive methods (efficacy rates of only 75%. . .), it is not
recommended for use as a regular method.*
PSI is engaging in propaganda campaigns, called "social marketing
campaigns," to deceive Americans and others into accepting MAP as merely
another form of contraception. *Worldwide there is a lack of awareness
among both service providers and consumers of pregnancy prevention options
available to women once unprotected intercourse has occurred,* PSI says.
*PSI's objective in social marketing EC is to decrease the incidence of
unintended pregnancies and abortions by making EC an option available to
women. . . .* PSI is socially marketing MAP in Venezuela and plans to
initiate programs in Paraguay and Argentina.
PSI even created a Peruvian organization, APPRENDE, just to distribute MAP
in Peru, but had to give up on it when Peruvian Congresswoman Judith De La
Matta exposed the plan. The UNFPA has just picked up the slack, donating
large a large quantity of MAPs to the Peruvian health system. *Peru will
have to pay for more pills in the future,* said Polo. *They haven't begun
to distribute them yet.* Peru's constitution outlaws abortion.
Pro-lifers have scored victories in Chile and Argentina, where the sale of
major brands of MAP have been prevented but some others are still allowed.
Chile has stopped distributing MAP in public clinics, a decision that
prompted the Planned Parenthood Federation of America to complain in a
headline on April 20, 2005, *Emergency Contraception in Chile Snatched
from the Jaws of Victory.* In Uruguay, MAP is accepted, both in
drugstores and in public clinics.
In Colombia and Honduras, MAP is sold in drugstores, but Honduran
pro-lifers succeeded in getting that country's General Prosecutor to
declare that MAP is an abortifacient and thus unconstitutional.
ASHONPLAFA, affiliated with the International Planned Parenthood
Federation (IPPF), is defending MAP, and the courts will decide.
In Ecuador, pro-life activists *protested against the granting of
permission for MAP to be sold,* said Polo. *They managed to get the sale
of the main brand of the morning-after pill prohibited, but a small
Argentinean company is still selling MAP there. Now they are trying to
outlaw it.* Tremendous political upheaval in that country has delayed a
legal decision, said Polo. *Ecuador has the most important fight over
MAP, because pro-lifers managed to combat the problems from the beginning.
The MAP defenders made a mistake. They announced their intentions two
months beforehand, giving us time to prepare.
*The main goal of our opposition is to have MAP accepted by our
societies,* he said. *The main way to do it is have the government
distribute it for free to poor people in public health centers.* The
emphasis on MAP comes at the expense of true health care. *Peru is really
poor,* Polo said. *We don't have money to buy enough antibiotics. To
have MAP is something crazy.*
Keeping MAP at bay is especially difficult because it is made of a higher
dose of the everyday contraceptive pill; no other drugs are required.
Latin American pro-lifers, led by PRI, continue their work to eradicate
this human pesticide from their region. We should pray for their success.
Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the
Population Research Institute.
