Forwarded mail
Dear Mr. and Mrs. [Constituent]
Thank you for contacting my office in opposition to funding for international family planning programs… It has been my view that family planning funds help prevent unintended pregnancies and, therefore, help to lower the incidence of abortion in developing countries as well as our own. Under our international family planning law, no United States funds may be used for abortions or abortion related services. [Emphasis added.]
Senator William VI Roth, Jr.
Editors’ comment: In fact Senator Roth is wrong on both counts. In developing countries, the widespread promotion of so-called modern methods of contraception leads to a dramatic increase in the abortion rate. Potential users are often misled by family planning activists as to the efficacy of “modern methods,” leading to the abandonment of traditional methods, a false sense of security; and an increase in the abortion rate. Even when properly used, modern methods have significant rates of contraceptive failure, leading to higher rates of abortion. Moreover; wide-spread promotion of contraception in developing countries leads to higher rates of sexual activity among teenagers, which in turn increases the abortion rate.
While it is true that US funds are restricted from being used directly in the performance of abortion, international population control organizations are free to use other money to promote and perform abortions widely. Thus American taxpayer funds are indirectly used in the promotion and performance of abortion around the world.
Two views of Norplant
Wake up! The planet does not need additional human infestation.
Doesn’t it occur to you that we are only one little animal with no
natural predators that are reproducing to our own and to the detriment
of other species? Or are you so insanely arrogant as to believe that
GOD wants us to slowly destroy this beautiful place? Your Norplant
petition is ludicrous. Do you think the scar on that woman’s arm that
you pictured on your web page amounts to 1/1,000,000th of the pain and
suffering that woman and her children would experience if she were
additional [sic] burdened with mouths she could not feed or tiny feet
she could not clothe? You people are idiots. Try educating yourselves
on the immense burden that WOMEN are living through all over the world
because men (and the IGNORANT women who follow them) continue to
reproduce without responsibility or recourse.
Signed
Bobi Apperley
Via the Internet
Dear PRI,
I had just decided to do a little surfing and see if there were really other women who had some of the [Norplant] problems I’ve experienced. As I read about the women in Bangladesh and Haiti, I found myself feeling nauseous with both relief and fright.
Fortunately I had my implants removed after 18 months of continuous bleeding, headaches, lethargy, dizziness, anxiety (which, naturally, I’ve been prescribed medication for), weight gain (I now weigh ten pounds more than I did at nine months pregnant), and self recrimination — blaming myself for it all.
I guess that you’ve heard stories like this many times already and will continue to do so, at least until the FDA decides to take this poison off the market. I dread to think what women in a similar circumstance but with less financial recourse will have to go through in the next year as this comes to light. I find it shameful that any information derogatory to Norplant is hidden in the back sections of newspapers, and that Planned Parenthood still claims that they’ve had no complaints — at least in my city. I consider myself lucky to have gotten off relatively lightly…
Thank you.
Name withheld by request.
