Politics
Monday October 6, 2008
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
US Government Cuts Off Supplies to Marie Stopes International
By Samantha Singson
NEW YORK, NY, October 6, 2008 (C-FAM) - According to news reports, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has issued a new directive requiring several African countries to stop providing United States-funded contraceptives to Marie Stopes International (MSI), one of the world's leading abortion providers.
USAID decided to take action and pull support for MSI in Africa because of the organization's collaboration with China's draconian population program.
Under US law, any organization that "supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization" is prohibited from receiving American foreign aid. This law, also known as the Kemp-Kasten amendment, has been used since 2002 to deny funding to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The possibility that other complicit groups would also be affected was hinted at by the US State Department a few weeks ago when it once more withheld funds from UNFPA.
The US government informed Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe that it did not want any USAID-funded contraceptives to be provided to Marie Stopes International.
The AP reports that the US does not give any direct assistance to MSI, but that the organization is a leading family planning health provider in Africa and one of several distributors of US-donated contraceptive commodities, like condoms and intrauterine devices.
MSI chief executive Dana Hovig denied the allegations of cooperating with forced abortions in China, stating, "To the contrary, MSI is one of the few organizations that has worked over the past decade to increase the availability of voluntary, client-centered family planning services in China." He blasted the USAID decision as "purely political and dangerous to the lives of women."
The US State Department and USAID have said that the directive only affects MSI and that the same amount of US-donated contraceptives would be distributed in the African nations by other groups.
Marie Stopes has been a long-time advocate for abortion rights worldwide. For the past year, MSI has been collecting signatures for their "Global Safe Abortion" campaign which demands "for women's access to legal, safe abortion to be recognized as a fundamental human right." Pro-life initiatives to counter MSI's campaign have also been launched.
This article is reprinted with permission from: http://www.c-fam.org
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- UK Bishops’ Document on Homosexuality Praised by Prominent Anti-Catholic Homosexualist
- Interview: "The Proposed Coalition Government is Very Very Scary" Says Canadian Pro-Life Leader
- Abortionist Pleads No Contest to Felonies, Faces up to 10 Years in Jail
- Catholic Bishop: "Go Right Ahead and Arrest Me" Rather than Obey Freedom of Choice Act
- Abortion Linked to Disproportionately High Rate of Black Premature Births
- Bush Interview: "I Didn't Sell my Soul for Politics"
- Unprecedented Restrictions Placed on Religious, Political Clubs at Lakehead University
- Franklin Graham, Son of Billy Graham, at California Megachurch: "Abortion is Murder"
- Author of French "Right to Die" Law Opposes Efforts to Legalize Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
- Life Prizes Announces Winners of $600,000 Pro-Life Award
- Homosexualist Catholic University Students Join Protest against True Marriage
- Letters to the Editor for Tuesday, December 2, 2008
- Purchase of Christmas Music CD By Pro-Life Priest is Great Way to Support LifeSiteNews
Most Read this Week
- Behind the Scenes of Volition: Coincidences and Startling Circumstances
- Ad Showing Woman Seducing Santa Promotes Free Morning-After Pills and Condoms for Christmas
- Belgian Couple Sells Baby on EBay
- Leading Canadian Pro-Life MP Relates Shocking 20 Year Lack of Support From Catholic Clergy
- Naming the Anti-Life Appointments in the Obama Administration
- Cardinal on Biblical Condemnation of Homosexuality: We're Not Allowed the Cowardice of "Politically Correct" Silence
- Film Review: Volition
- A Painful, Disease-Ridden Death Isn’t So Bad if You’re Just a White, Heterosexual Male
- Just In Time for Christmas - Gift Cards for Abortions from Planned Parenthood
- Abortion Now Number One Cause of Death in Spain
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.