Global Monitor

USAID ‘BIG COUNTRY’ STRATEGY

The U.S. Agency for International Development has begun a major restructuring of its “population assistance funding priorities,” doubling “the amount of aid to the 17 largest countries” which accept U.S. assistance.

The ‘Big Country’ strategy sets population size as “the dominant factor in a hierarchy of determinant variables.” Other determinants included in the strategy are: “unmet need,” (the number of women who would “postpone their next pregnancy” if they had access to more contraceptives); “high parity births,” (more than four births per woman); and “high risk births,” (a high number of births per woman, a mother of less than 18 or more than 34 years of age, and birth intervals of less than 2 years).

“The three additional factors shuffle the country priority order .… “ Ethiopia jumps from 13th to seventh place, Colombia drops to the 27th rank and the six largest countries — India, Indonesia, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Pakistan — remain in the top six.

The USAID report continues: “Inclusion in the strategy is dependent on policy, political and programmatic considerations. ‘Big countries’ will change with the political winds and program performance.”1

UNFPA — 44 BILLION CONDOMS NEEDED PER YEAR

UNFPA reports that “if world population is to be kept at 6.26 billion by the year 2000, the number of couples using contraceptives in developing nations must rise from the present 381 million to 567 million.”

The UNFPA study notes that “to meet the expected demand for contraceptives needed to reach UNFPA targets” the developing world will need “annually 44 billion condoms, 8.76 billion cycles of oral pills, 633 million doses of injectable contraceptives, 310 million intrauterine devices (IUDs) and 151 million female and male sterilizations.” The cost for the increased supply of contraceptives will rise from $399 million in 1990 to $627 million by the year 2000.2

GERMAN BAN ON EMBRYO RESEARCH

“The government of the Federal Republic of Germany plans to introduce legislation that would ban the use of human embryos in medical research.

“It would only allow research that does not damage the embryo. The production of spare embryos such as with in vitro fertilization would not be allowed. Manipulation of human genetic material would be made a criminal offense.

“The proposal is due in part to strong opposition to such research by the general public, which still has strong memories of eugenics experiments performed by Nazi doctors.”3

POPULATION CONTROL/GERMAN CONNECTION

The European family planning magazine Entre Nous reports that Professor Karl-Heinz Mehlan, a young medical student in Hitler’s Germany, “brought clinical leadership skills and personal enthusiasm to the practice of fertility regulation in the 1960s.” Not only did he assist in the development of contraception but he became “a leading commentator on induced abortion.”

In 1956 he founded the Institute for Hygiene at the University of Rostock Medical School and served as its director. In 1960 he organized, in Rostock, an international conference “on reducing abortion and promoting contraception.”

In 1963 Professor Mehlan founded the “Society for Marriage and the Family” which became the IPPF affiliate in the German Democratic Republic and later merged with Pro-Familia.

“Known affectionately in East Germany as Pillenvater (Father of the pill),” Mehlan was responsible for introducing a 30-hour course in “Family Planning” in medical schools there. Now that he is retired, Karl-Heinz Mehlan “continues to inspire others with his enthusiasm, spirit and humour.”4

USAID AND U.S. BUSINESS, PARTNERS IN GLOBAL ECONOMY

“We want to engage American business in our business of development, tap its creativity, and build partnerships that will benefit both the United States and the world’s emerging democracies,” said USAID Administrator Ronald W. Roskens.5

Mr. Roskens should know…he’s been exporting American business know-how for a number of years.

Somarc’s Social Marketing for Change — the centrally funded Contraceptive Social Marketing (CSM) contract of USAID’s Office of Population — was awarded in 1984 for a period of five years to The Futures Group, a Washington, D.C.-based marketing and management consulting firm.

Exceeding the original target of 10, SOMARC launched 13 CSM projects. Within the first 13 months CSM product sales were initiated in Mexico, Trinidad, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Brazil and Bolivia.

Project design and implementation established “innovative new partnerships with the private sector; a systematic market research approach, an effective management and advisory structure; ability to reach a target audience of low income contraceptors; and successful expansion into Africa.”

Further, 32 to 47 percent of CSM consumers in the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Mexico and the Caribbean were first-time users of contraceptives; and 67–95 percent of purchasers were from the lower socio-economic area.6

Now there’s an example of a Rosken-styled “beneficial” business partnership!

COERCIVE POPULATION CONTROL PROGRAMS

The use of hortatory language in recent statements by population control “figure-heads” establishes a foundation for coercive population control policy.

Former World Bank President Robert S. McNamara insists that “without immediate action … population may well destroy the world environment, undoing decades of economic and social progress.”

He called for global mobilization through a six-step approach. Each developing country should set specific targets which include contraceptive-prevalence levels, contraceptive expenditures and sources of finance; draft plans and report on “progress to its people;” the World Bank should organize central financing; UNFPA should monitor the program and report annually to the U.N. Economic and Social Council (Eco/Soc) on success and failures. Eco/Soc would then determine the “further action” necessary to ensure that “all nations are on a course toward sustainable development.” A Population Commission should be established and chaired “preferably by a woman from a developing country” in order to prepare for the 1994 International Conference on Population Development.7

KENYA’S WEEKLY REVIEW BLASTS CATHOLICS

From the height and breadth of his broad knowledge and worldly experience, Hilary Ng’weno, editor-in-chief of the Kenya Weekly Review, accused the Catholic Church of “ignorance of the actual conditions in which couples live in marriage.” He bombastically assured Catholic clergy that if they “did not bury their heads in the sand ostrich-like over the basic natural forces that are at the centre of the whole process of human procreation” they would have a “much more meaningful impact.”

His editorialized article was written in response to the Archbishop of Mombasa’s announcement that he would annul any marriage in which the couples did not intend to have children.8

INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON POPULATION IN 1994

The U.N. Economic and Social Council will convene an international meeting on population in 1994. The executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Nafis Sadik, was appointed to serve as the secretary-general of the meeting. The director of the Population Division of the Department of International Economic and Social Affairs was appointed as deputy secretary-general.

The meeting will be called the “International Conference on Population and Development, 1994.” The Economic and Social Council stated that “population, sustained economic growth and sustainable development” will be the theme of the conference. The six major issues “requiring the greatest attention during the next decade [will be]: population growth and demographic structure; population policies and programs; population, environment and development; population distribution and migration; women and population; and family planning, health and family well-being.”9

CONTRACEPTIVE DISCOUNT CARDS

“In BanDung, Indonesia, a card verifying a vasectomy can get you into the movies for free while a four-year commitment to birth control pills, documented by your photo on a laminated plastic card, is good for 10% off your groceries.

“The discount card, developed by Population Communication, involves local businesses, service establishments, retail stores, physicians and professionals in the economics of population control. Supporting groups from doctors, druggists, department stores etc., are given decals to display in their shop windows, identifying them as family planning discount providers.

“Members [of the Discount Club] using permanent methods, like a vasectomy, tubectomy or implants, qualify for the Indonesian version of Gold Card status. Young members or those who have one child must have used an IUD for three years, or injections, birth control pills, or condoms for at least four years in order to join. Members having two children or more must have used the IUD, injections, birth control pills or condoms for five years and must plan not to have more children.10

The initiator of the program, Population Communication (PC), a California-based organization, is an international, non-governmental, non-profit organization established in 1977. PC’s goal is to make the “population decline profitable to all groups.”11

The organization also “communicates population messages to world leaders, develops media and motion screenplays with population themes,” and “informs doctors about the latest contraceptive technologies.”12

IPPF BRAZIL STERILIZATION PROGRAM

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)-sponsored BEMFAM has been accused by women’s reproductive health groups of performing illegal sterilizations. In Brazil, sterilization as contraception is illegal but the government claims that millions have been performed and many are not done for medical reasons.

BEMFAM officials say that BEMFAM is being persecuted for its connections with international groups and its association with the former military regime which was ousted in 1982. “The accusation is that this is a conspiracy by the Americans to reduce the number of locals,” IPPF’s Alvaro Monroy said.

BEMFAM has 10 clinics of its own and 11 integrated programs through state and local government and enterprises. They receive 50% of their funding from IPPF, 22% from local sources and the remaining money from USAID and other international missions.13

The IPPF annual grant was $2,552,200 (1989), estimated at $1,769,200 (1990), projected $1,752,200 (1991).

USAID funds are fed into Brazil indirectly through USAID-financed groups such as the Association for Voluntary Sterilization, the Center for Population Options, Development Associates, Inc., Family Health International, Family Planning International Assistance, John Snow, Inc., Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Program for International Education in Reproductive Health, JHU Population Information Program, Pathfinder Fund, and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).14

INDUSTRIALIST WINS U.N. POPULATION AWARD

Indian industrialist, J.R.D. Tata, owner of Tata Steel Co. in India’s Bihar state, shared the 1992 United Nations Population Award. The U.N. award is presented annually to individuals and institutions for outstanding contributions in the population control field.

In the 1950s, industrialist Tata established the nation’s first factory-based contraceptive/abortifacient “family welfare” program. In 1970, Tata established the Family Planning Foundation of India, now the country’s leading non-governmental organization in the field.

Tata Oil Mills and Tata Steel sponsor a new nationally televised soap opera in India titled Humraahi (Companions). Humraahi is intended to persuade viewers to “rethink cultural patterns and work toward new values and a new society.” Before the script was written, the culture of the target area, the four Indian states of Utter Pradash, Rahastan, Madya Pradesh and Bihar were researched.

The television program also acts as a “clearinghouse” for information. When viewers write for specific information relating to problems, e.g., a wife complaining about her husband, the information is passed on to NGOs or other agencies that deal with the problems in question.15

THE SPECTER OF HUNGARY’S EXTINCTION

“Self-styled protectors of the unborn” have raised the specter of Hungary’s extinction due to unrestricted abortions during the Communist regime. Hungary’s Constitutional Court has directed Parliament to draft new abortion legislation by December 1992. One prominent right-to-life campaigner asserted that if it were not for its abortion policy, Hungary’s population would be 2 million more than its present 10.4 million.

Population Communications International claims that the total of abortions had “fallen” to 90,000 in 1990 or 72 per 100 live births. Geneticist Dr. Endre Czeizel, founder of Hungary’s first “network of family planning” centers says that no more than 20% of Hungary’s abortions “were performed for medical reasons.” The remainder “resulted from inadvertent pregnancies.”16

CONDOM BREAKAGE HIGHER THAN EXPECTED

Regular condom use has a failure rate of roughly 12 percent, higher than many other contraceptive methods according to the U.S.-based and USAID-funded Family Health International (FHI). While FHI attributed the higher failure rate to inconsistent use, the study found an average breakage rate of 5 % among study participants.

The study, which involved 1,700 “condom users” in eight countries, accounts for other “significant causes” of condom breakage such as improper storage or condom misuse by individuals dubbed “breakers” who had a consistent breakage rate of 20%.17

THE FIGHTING IRISH

Population control forces gleefully target Catholics in Ireland. The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), with its Nazi-based eugenic roots, has been baiting the ‘Irish trap.’ It is the task of IPPF’s Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) to break down the culture which has protected Irish women from the fragmented human relationships, health destruction and rampant venereal diseases which have accompanied population control programs throughout the world.

IFPA takes credit for the sale of 17,500 condoms in 1991, mostly through an illegal outlet at Dublin’s Virgin Record Shop. Last Valentine’s Day, an undercover police officer bought two Mates condoms at Virgin records, leading to a court battle that featured the testimony of Dr. Malcolm Potts. Dr. Malcolm Potts is a prominent American abortion propagandist who heads Family Health International, a USAID-funded population control group based in the North Carolina Triangle area (USA).

In the meantime IPPF and its affiliate IFPA look hopefully to Mary O’Rourke, the new liberal-minded health minister of Ireland, to bring the Irish into the fold of the ‘controllers.’18