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Email: "Intense Media Campaign By American NGO Pushing “Plan B” Pill in Kenya"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiNAIROBI, July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A media campaign by the American NGO, Populations Services International (PSI), is promoting the use of the abortifacient Plan B emergency contraceptive pill - or so-called "morning-after pill" - to Kenyan youth in Kenyan newspapers, magazines and on radio.Populations Services International of Washington, DC is part of the International Consortium on Emergency Contraception (ICEC), an international group of population control and abortion supporters formed in 1996. The group includes agencies such as the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, Family Health International, UN Development Program, UN Fund for Population Activities, World Health Organization, and International Planned Parenthood Federation.The controversial radio ad presents a distraught teenage girl asking for advice after a sexual encounter."What shall I do? I'm still in college. What happens to my future, my friends, my family, my life?" she sobs.The solution she is given is the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill, or E-pill, as it's called in Kenya. "Just ask for an E-pill," she is told.The abortifacient emergency contraceptive Plan B drug, a high dose of the hormone progestin, will prevent conception by preventing the release of an egg for fertilization, but may also end early-stage pregnancy by preventing a newly conceived embryo from implanting in its mother's womb.Various organizations in the country are expressing concern over the effect the ads will have on youth and believe the advertising campaign is influencing young people to be promiscuous.Josephine Kibaru, head of family health in the Ministry of Health, told the BBC that though she is a strong advocate of contraception and condom use, she has reservations about the intense media campaign promoting the emergency pill."The impression I get is that university girls are using these pills irresponsibly… If they are needing them it means they have had unprotected sex," she said."My concern actually is about the HIV/Aids … it is something that will ruin their lives forever. I would rather those adverts showed more mature women. And I would want to see the message go beyond the emergency."Dominic Karanja, chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya, expressed his concern about the negative health effects of long-term use of the E-pill, including nausea, heavy bleeding and cramps, and serious health complications such as blood clots and stroke, and increased risk of a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy."The youth are getting the message that it's OK to go out and have fun because you won't get pregnant," says Karanja, and added that there is a notable increase in the sale of the pills during school holidays and weekends.An editorial in the Nairobi Standard by Njoki Karuoya decries the promotion of the dangerous drug and asks what message it sends to the country's youth."The media campaign to promote the emergency contraceptive pill, or E-Pill as it also referred to, is the most irresponsible promotion I have come across in a long time," she wrote."So what message are we as a country sending to our youth? That the only thing they have to fear in their lives is pregnancy? What about the dangers of creating a highly charged promiscuous society?"Populations Services International and the International Consortium on Emergency Contraception have been globally promoting the emergency contraceptive pill (EPC) since the World Health Organization added EPCs to its published list of Essential Drugs in 1996. The mission objective of the group states that it is "committed to making a dedicated product for emergency contraception a standard part of reproductive health care around the world," but does not mention the effects of these potent drugs on women's health. For the many negative side effects of ECPs click here.See related LSN articles:UN & IPPF Behind International Promotion of "Emergency Contraception"http://lsn.ca/ldn/1999/dec/991210a.htmlPlan B Manufacturer Admits Morning After Pill Can Cause Death of an Embryohttp://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06090701.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/intense-media-campaign-by-american-ngo-pushing-plan-b-pill-in-kenya/

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