Iran embraces population controllers
In the “News Pile” section of the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s magazine, People & the Planet, Iran is noted as “determined” to “revive the family planning programs suspended in 1978.”
IPPF reports that the Iranian government spent $150 million for “population activities” in 1992. The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. M. R. Zali, has “indicated his desire to collaborate with IPPF and to make way for the establishment of a new Family Planning Association.” ‘The article states that contraceptive prevalence is estimated at about 4l percent of the population in 1992 (“Iran Revives Family Planning,” People & the Planet, vol. 2, no. 1, 1993).
UNFPA targets “priority countries”
Applying the “criteria and thresholds established in 1988” to the “latest estimates of economic and demographic indicators,” the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) updated its list of “priority countries.” In order to qualify for priority status, a country “must have a per capita gross national product (GNP) of US $750 or less” plus “two of the following: an annual increment of 100,000 or more in population size; a gross reproduction rate of 2.0 or more; an infant mortality rate of 40 percent or less; and a density of agricultural population on arable land of two or more people per hectare.”
As of January 1993, the priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa are: Angola, Benin, Burkino Faso; Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau; Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
In Asia and the Pacific: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.
In Latin America and the Caribbean: Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In the Arab States: Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen (Populi, vol. 20, no. 5, May 1993, “Dispatches”).
Jordan and UNFPA in partnership
Jordan‘s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kamel Abu-Jaber, joining forces with UNFPA’s Executive Director, Natis Sadik, signed a “Host Country Agreement.” The agreement established Amman, Jordan as the home base for the UNFPA Country Support Team (CST) for the Arab States. Country Support Teams supplement in-country expertise and form the mainstay of UNFPA technical support services (TSS) system. The Jordanian government is donating a three story building for the Team’s offices (“Country directors role declined,” Populi, vol. 20, no. 5, May 1993).
Other population control groups currently operating in Jordan include the World Bank (Primary Health Project, IBRD loan $13.5 million); International Planned Parenthood Federation; U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); and USAID-funded groups such as the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception, The Johns Hopkins University Population Communications Services, Development Associates, and Save the Children (Inventory of Population Projects, 1990/9l, UNFPA, 290–4).
Nigerian “Women’s Welfare Promotion”
The UNFPA supports a unique program which combines family limitation and health programs with literacy and income earning. Women in Nigeria‘s Bauchi State were granted loans from the commercial United Bank of Africa as part of an agricultural project. UNFPA Country Director Alphonse MacDonald reported from Lagos that S5 percent of the women who participated in the project, “Women’s Welfare Promotion,” had repaid their loans on time. The remaining women had asked for extensions because of problems caused by a drought. The United Bank of Africa promises to advance further commercial loans to the women as a result of their “credit worthiness” (Populi, vol. 20, no. 5, May 1993, “Notes,” 4).
Indonesian government
Indonesia, which has become known for its stringent population control program, has passed additional laws to regulate the reproductive decisions of Indonesian families. The new law titled “the Law on Population Development and the Prosperous Family,” authorizes the government to regulate the “mobility and distribution of the people,” and “the number and spacing of children,” as well as “the appropriate ages” for marriage and birth. Under the new regulations, an incentive or disincentive program system will provide “opportunities, privileges, facilities, services, [and] subsidies” depending on the acceptance or rejection of government population dictates. The government will also increase pressure on the people through information, education, and communication, the provision of family limitation “equipment” and the monitoring of “population developments” (Populi, vol. 20, no. 4, April 1993, 5–6).
South Korea develops sex-ratio imbalance
South Korean families, who have an average 1.6 children, appear to be resorting to ultrasound testing in order to have an “indispensable” son. The country’s “National Fertility and Family Health Survey” reported that the sex-ratio of the nation’s births has “swung from 105 boys born for every 100 girls, to 114 boys for every 100 girls.” The report indicated that less than two percent of women who are carrying a male child decide to have an abortion as compared to almost half of those carrying a female child (Populi, vol. 20, no. 4, 2).
Prostrate cancer linked to vasectomy
In a study of more than 73,000 men who participated in The Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, an increased risk of 56 percent to 66 percent incidence of prostrate cancer appeared to occur in men who had undergone vasectomies. The risk also “seemed to increase with time.” Twenty years after the vasectomy, risk appeared to reach 85 percent to S9 percent.”
The study was performed under the direction of Dr. Edward Giovanucci of Harvard Medical School. The researchers speculated that prostate cancer risk may occur through the reduction of secretions by the prostate gland.
Dr. Stuart Howard of the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center and Dr. Herbert Peterson of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated: “If vasectomy is a risk factor for prostate cancer, people need to know and informed choices need to be made .… [I]f associations are spurious but believed to be real, the popularity of a highly effective contraceptive will be reduced [and] opportunities to reduce unintended pregnancy will be lost.” (Bob Stein, UPI science editor, “Vasectomy linked to prostate cancer,” UPn, 17 Feb. 1993).
Breast cancer-abortion link
“A case-controlled study was conducted in Los Angeles County, California, of 163 very young breast-cancer cases (all aged 32 or less at diagnosis) to investigate the role, if any, of oral contraceptives (OC) in the development of the disease. OC use before first full-term pregnancy (FF-TP) was associated with an elevated risk. This increase could not be explained by other risk factors. OC use after FETP not associated with any change in risk. A first-trimester abortion before FPTP, whether spontaneous or induced, was associated with a 2–4-fold increase in breast cancer risk” (Pike, MC, et al., Brit. J. Cancer, 43: 72–6, 1981).
In a review of epidemiological studies linking abortion and breast cancer, Larissa I. Reminick relates the following: “[In] a number of studies from all over the world (USA, Canada, France, Denmark, Japan, and Israel) abortions…have been shown to be significantly associated with breast cancer risk”. One of a number of cases cited is described: “A population based case-controlled study conducted in Denmark” shows “induced abortion in the first and second trimesters of the first pregnancy was significantly associated with breast cancer risk (RR 1-43 with 95 percent CI 1-10-1-84). Women with two or more abortions before their first full term pregnancy had a breast cancer risk of 1–73 (0-76-3·91)” (Reminick, L.I., J. Epidemiol. and Commun Health, 44:259–64, 1990).
Contraceptive failure rates
The Alan Guttmacher Institute, research arm of Planned Parenthood, reminds its associates and journal readers, “The pregnancy rate of women varies greatly depending on method of contraceptive used as well as how carefully it is used.” Contraceptive failure rates are reported as: (perfect use) condom 2.0; diaphragm 6.0; cap 6.0; spermicides 3.0; IUD 0.8; oral contraceptives 0.1; implants 0.04; injectables 0.3; tubal sterilization 0.2; vasectomy 0.1 (Washington Post, 28 Dec. 1992).
Fearful possibility — say it isn’t so!
The U.S. Agency for International Development has decided to “phase out” its $8 million “annual investment” in population control programs among Brazilians by the year 2000. As if that weren’t bad enough — BEMFAM, Brazil’s IPPF affiliate will no longer hear the merry jingle of USAID golden coins as they klink into its organizational coffers. The group has received “about 50% of its funding from IPPF, 22% from local sources and the remainder from USAID and other international missions” (John M. Di-Consiglio, “Numbers game .…,” Family Planning World, vol. 3, no. 3, 13–24).
The ghost of “Christmas past” will surely gaze mournfully into a barren (excuse the pun) future no longer blessed by America‘s generous taxpayer-funded gifts to the Brazilian people: sterilizations performed by the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception and promoted by The Johns Hopkins University; the plots and plans of the Center for Population Options as they strategize the co-option of Brazilian children; the research protocols of Family Health International which used Brazilians as subjects; population pressures and propaganda targeted at Brazilians by The Johns Hopkins University; and Norplant, Copper-T IUD, and Levonorgestrel experiments carried out on Brazilian women by the Population Council.
Moreover, the voice of Brazil’s Minister of Health will no longer be raised in loud objections to U.S. financing of “a distorted criminal birth control program” (The Guardian, 5 Feb. 1991). It’s enough to make a Christmas Grinch cry!
WHO’s “Family Health” strategy to promote population technology
The executive board of the World Health Organization (VVHO) will emphasize the integration of family limitation methods in its maternal/child and adolescent health programs. “They in fact did want in WHO…greater emphasis on the family planning side,” according to Mark Belsey, chief of the maternal/child health division.
As the board moves to reduce family size they will also consider incorporating a U.N. General Assembly resolution proclaiming 1994 as the International Year of the Family (Jim Kennett, “WHO General Assembly…,” Family Planning World: vol. 3, 110. 3, 15).
U.S. State Department Counselor “counsels” population control
The Clinton administration’s appointed “counselor” to the U. S. State Dept., Timothy Wirth, announced a major shift in U.S. population policy at the second preparatory meeting for the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.
“President Clinton is deeply committed to moving population to the forefront of America’s international priorities,” Wirth told the U.N. meeting. The U.S. will help build a consensus for “priority, long-term and quantitative goals for stabilizing world population” Further, “The U.S. government believes the Cairo conference would be remiss if it did not develop recommendations and guidance with regard to abortion. Our position is to support reproductive choice, including access to abortion.” He said, “No issue will leave a greater mark on future generations than the population issue” (Wirth statement, 11 May 1993).
Philippine door-to-door condom delivery
Trust Express, the “contraceptive social marketing” project of the U.S.-based organization, DKT International, runs a door-to-door condom delivery service in the Philippines. DKT plans to expand its program beyond the Makati area where it has conducted a three month pilot project. The Philippine Inquirer reports the Trust-brand condoms are considered “affordable.” The condom delivery men wear blue uniforms and ride motorcycles that fly blue flags reading, “We deliver. Trust Express” (“Bright Ideas,” Family Planning World, vol. 3, no. 3, 19).
Clinton Administration’s Africa policy
U.S. National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, in an address at the Brookings Institution, said, “We must focus more energy on the underlying forces that strain Africa’s natural and human resources, such as population growth and disease. After more than a decade of ideological impasse over many family planning efforts, our government has an opportunity to open a new chapter in our population efforts in Africa and elsewhere” (Text of Lake remarks to the Brookings Institution’s Africa Forum, 3 May 1993).
New directions for the World Bank
The Congressional Staff Forum on International Development, in a recent report, reviewed new directions for World Bank programs.
In FY 86-FY 88, World Bank commitments for “population, health, and nutrition,” were $1.0 billion (l.5 percent of commitments). For FY 92-FY 94, the commitments will be $4.8 billion (6.4 percent).
The report stated that the Bank‘s “longstanding goal of poverty reduction needed to be incorporated more directly into its policy dialog with adjusting countries.” The Bank “has advocated a two-phase approach to reducing poverty.” The first phase is to promote more widespread economic growth. The second is to provide “social services including primary education, basic health care, family planning, and nutrition (The World Bank in the 1990s, Congressional Staff Forum on International Development paper, 24 May 1993)
Indonesia, population redistribution
An article in the New York Times reviewed Indonesia‘s efforts to ease population pressures on the island of Java by opening new settlements on other islands, especially Sumatra. It has been a “serious, voluntary effort at population control by redistribution.”
The “transmigration” plan has been a “mixed success” with many “cruel mistakes,” according to the article by Philip Shenon. From 1984 to 1989, 750,000 families were moved.
Environmentalists have criticized the displacement of tribal peoples and damage to the environment. Others perceive a government design to Javanize other regions.
Reliable government studies show that the migrants believe their lives are better in the new settlements because they became land owners.
The article indicates, however, that “while the population of Java continues to grow, the worst fears of demographers have not been realized. With industrialization and foreign investment, Indonesia has one of the world’s fastest growing economies .…” (Philip Shenon, “Rearranging the Population: Indonesia Weighs the pluses and the minuses,” The New York Times, 8 Oct. 1992, A12).
U.S. market seeks fetal tissue
Now that U.S. President Bill Clinton has reversed the Reagan/Bush administration ban on transplantation of fetal tissue, a demand-driven market has opened up. In a move to produce supplies to meet the demand, the U.S. has turned to the international marketplace.
A ready supply of fetal tissue can be provided by Russian hospitals which perform 1–6 million abortions a year. Russia does not have any legal restrictions on the procurement or use of fetal tissue. The International Institute of Biological Medicine, which operates out of the Russian Research Centre of Perinatology, Obstetrics, and Gynecology, claims to have the World‘s largest bank of fetal tissue. Women who have free abortions offered by the Institute are asked to sign a document permitting the use of “their fetus…for scientific and medical purposes.” Foreign patients who receive fetal tissue at the Institute pay up to $9,000 for treatment while Russians pay $500. Children are treated free.
Moscow‘s main abortion clinic has now signed a deal with a clinic in Santa Barbara, California to provide fetal tissue for pancreatic transplants to 40 patients with diabetes (“Moscow sells fetal tissue to U.S.,” British Medical Journal, International, no. 6890, vol. 306, 1433).
UNICEF’s “direct” investment in population initiatives
UNICEF says that it will now make a more “direct investment” in “major population initiatives.” Officials in both UNFPA and UNICEF agree that “UNICEF’s strength in social mobilization and advocacy” will assist in “making use of UNICEF‘s vast network” for “family planning.” UNICEF’s appeals on behalf of children have also provided them with a budget of $900 million as opposed to UNFPA’s budget of $350 million. UNFPA will now be able to tap directly into those funds (The Earth Times, 18 May 1993, 3).
