UPDATE (Nov. 12): Kenya's government has launched an investigation into the Catholic Church's allegations. See follow up article here.

Kenya’s Catholic bishops are charging two United Nations organizations with sterilizing millions of girls and women under cover of an anti-tetanus inoculation program sponsored by the Kenyan government.

According to a statement released Tuesday by the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, the organization has found an antigen that causes miscarriages in a vaccine being administered to 2.3 million girls and women by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Priests throughout Kenya reportedly are advising their congregations to refuse the vaccine.

“We sent six samples from around Kenya to laboratories in South Africa. They tested positive for the HCG antigen,” Dr. Muhame Ngare of the Mercy Medical Centre in Nairobi told LifeSiteNews. “They were all laced with HCG.”

Dr. Ngare, spokesman for the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, stated in a bulletin released November 4, “This proved right our worst fears; that this WHO campaign is not about eradicating neonatal tetanus but a well-coordinated forceful population control mass sterilization exercise using a proven fertility regulating vaccine. This evidence was presented to the Ministry of Health before the third round of immunization but was ignored.”

But the government says the vaccine is safe. Health Minister James Macharia even told the BBC, “I would recommend my own daughter and wife to take it because I entirely 100% agree with it and have confidence it has no adverse health effects.” 

And Dr. Collins Tabu, head of the Health Ministry’s immunization branch, told the Kenyan Nation, that “there is no other additive in the vaccine other than the tetanus antigen.”

Tabu said the same vaccine has been used for 30 years in Kenya. Moreover, “there are women who were vaccinated in October 2013 and March this year who are expectant. Therefore we deny that the vaccines are laced with contraceptives.”

Newspaper stories also report women getting pregnant after being vaccinated.

Responds Dr. Ngare: “Either we are lying or the government is lying. But ask yourself, ‘What reason do the Catholic doctors have for lying?’” Dr. Ngare added: “The Catholic Church has been here in Kenya providing health care and vaccinating for 100 years for longer than Kenya has existed as a country.”

Dr. Ngare told LifeSiteNews that several things alerted doctors in the Church’s far-flung medical system of 54 hospitals, 83 health centres, and 17 medical and nursing schools to the possibility the anti-tetanus campaign was secretly an anti-fertility campaign.

Why, they ask does it involve an unprecedented five shots (or “jabs” as they are known, in Kenya) over more than two years and why is it applied only to women of child-bearing years, and why is it not being conducted without the usual fanfare of government publicity?

“Usually we give a series three shots over two to three years, we give it anyone who comes into the clinic with an open wound, men, women or children.” said Dr. Ngare. “If this is intended to inoculate children in the womb, why give it to girls starting at 15 years? You cannot get married till you are 18.” The usual way to vaccinate children is to wait till they are six weeks old.”

But it is the five-vaccination regime that is most alarming. “The only time tetanus vaccine has been given in five doses is when it is used as a carrier in fertility regulating vaccines laced with the pregnancy hormone, Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) developed by WHO in 1992.”

It is HCG that has been found in all six samples sent to the University of Nairobi medical laboratory and another in South Africa. The bishops and doctors warn that injecting women with HCG , which mimics a natural hormone produced by pregnant women, causes them to develop antibodies against it. When they do get pregnant, and produce their own version of HCG, it triggers the production of antibodies that cause a miscarriage.

“We knew that the last time this vaccination with five injections has been used was in Mexico in 1993 and Nicaragua and the Philippines in 1994,” said Dr. Ngare. “It didn’t cause miscarriages till three years later,” which is why, he added, the counterclaims that women who got the vaccination recently and then got pregnant are meaningless.

Ngare said WHO tried to bring the same anti-fertility program into Kenya in the 1990s. “We alerted the government and it stopped the vaccination. But this time they haven’t done so.”

Ngare also contrasted the secrecy of this campaign with the usual fanfare accompanying national vaccination efforts. “They usually bring all the stakeholders together three months before the campaign, like they did with polio a little while ago. And they use staff in all the centres to give out the vaccine.” But with this anti-tetanus campaign, “only a few operatives from the government are allowed to give it out. They come with a police escort. They take it away with them when they are finished. Why not leave it with the local medical staff to administer?”

Brian Clowes of Human Life International in Virginia told LifeSite News that WHO was not involved in the Nicaragua, Mexican and Philippines campaigns. “They try to maintain a spotless record. They let organizations like United Nations Population Fund and USAID do the dirty work.”

In the previous cases, said Clowes, the vaccinators insisted their product was pure until it was shown not to be. Then they claimed the positive tests for HCG were isolated, accidental contaminations in the manufacturing process.

LifeSiteNews has obtained a UN report on an August 1992 meeting at its world headquarters in Geneva of 10 scientists from “Australia, Europe, India and the U.S.A” and 10 “women’s health advocates” from around the world, to discuss the use of “fertility regulating vaccines.” It describes the “anti-Human Chorionic Gonadotropin vaccine” as the most advanced.  

One million Kenyan women and girls have been vaccinated so far with another 1.3 million to go. The vaccination is targeting women, according to the government, in order to inoculate their children in the womb against tetanus as well. The government says 550 children die of tetanus yearly.

In covering the contest of words the pro-government Nation found plenty of women who had been vaccinated and were now pregnant, even one who was the wife of a former Catholic priest who left the Church to marry. The paper ignored Kenya’s reliance on the Catholic medical system, while setting the bishops’ stand in a questionable historical context of irrational responses “largely based on religious beliefs,” the more recent murder of vaccination teams in Nigeria, and even of CIA conspiracy theories.

Why would the UN want to suppress the population in developing countries? “Racism,” is Brian Clowes’ first explanation.  “Also, the developed countries want to get hold of their natural resources. And lately, there is the whole bogus global warming thing.”

Dr. Ngare said it was the Catholic Church’s hope that the government could have resolved the matter quietly by testing the vaccine. “But the government has chosen to be combative,” forcing Kenya’s bishops and Catholic doctors to go public.

WHO’s Kenyan office and several WHO media contacts in Washington, D.C. failed to respond to LifeSiteNews enquiries over a 24-hour period.  

TRENTON, NJ, February 13, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- A New Jersey state judge ruled Tuesday that Jewish-based reparative therapy group JONAH may have violated consumer fraud laws in advertising counseling services for individuals struggling with same-sex attraction who wish to be rid of their homosexual inclinations.

"It is a misrepresentation in violation of the CFA (Consumer Fraud Act), in advertising or selling conversion therapy services to describe homosexuality, not as being a normal variation of human sexuality, but as being a mental illness, disease, disorder, or equivalent," wrote Superior Court Judge Peter F. Barsio Jr., siding with the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, which brought the lawsuit.

But Barsio left room for the possibility that a jury might disagree, writing, “a jury could find, based on evidence presented at trial, that JONAH represented homosexuality not as a mental disorder, but as 'disordered' and prohibited by its religion,” in which case “First Amendment protections would be applicable.”

Barsio’s decision means that the case will progress to the trial phase, set to begin June 1. 

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Charles LiMandri, an attorney with Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, which is representing JONAH in court, said in a statement that he is optimistic the jury will side with JONAH this summer.

“Americans have a constitutionally protected freedom to decide how they want to live or change their lives, and that includes what counseling they wish to receive," LiMandri said. "[Barsio’s] decision doesn't change any of that for the people whom JONAH has served. We are confident that a jury will not shut down their freedom to voluntarily seek help from a religious nonprofit like JONAH if they so choose.”

Reparative therapy groups like JONAH have been under attack nationwide by homosexual activists who object to their promotion of the “dangerous” notion that sexual preference is something that can be changed.  Most of the attacks have come in the form of legislation banning reparative therapy for minors. As of now, bans have been passed in California, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.  

February 13, 2015 (40DaysforLife.com) -- Prayer is the foundation of 40 Days for Life. It was one hour of prayer around a table in Texas that led to the first 40 Days for Life campaign.

It is prayer that moves hearts and minds. Prayer is what speaks to the thousands of women who have turned around at the very last moment before their abortion. It is prayer that opens the hearts of abortion workers, and prayer that offers hope and healing to women as they leave the abortion facility after they’ve had an abortion. It is prayer that sustains a discouraged volunteer or motivates a hopeful leader to bring this campaign to their community.

Prayer is our strongest weapon because it takes the focus off ourselves and places our hope in God and His holy will. Prayer prevents us from getting overwhelmed and it humbles us when God answers.

As peaceful and prayerful as the 40 Days for Life campaigns have been — as selfless and loving as the hundreds of thousands of participants have been to women, men and workers — not everyone feels warm and fuzzy about 40 Days for Life.

We never expected the abortion industry to be supportive of what we do. They ramble on about “anti-choice protesters.” But the irony is that without the presence of prayer volunteers, the woman has no real choice once she arrives at their door. In fact, Planned Parenthood actively discourages their clients from speaking with prayer volunteers or taking free information about local alternatives. Countless are the times I’ve witnessed escorts and employees in the parking lot ripping up information about adoption or free pregnancy help in the community.

Of all the hostile and sometimes just plain bizarre reactions to 40 Days for Life from the abortion industry, perhaps the most outlandish unfolded during the spring 2012 campaign. I had just landed in Omaha, Nebraska to give a speech at Creighton University when my phone began buzzing with texts and emails from media outlets wanting comments on the new campaign from Planned Parenthood.

“Now what?” I thought to myself.

I got to my hotel and went through the calls and emails and couldn’t believe what was happening.

A Planned Parenthood affiliate in California had launched a mock 40 Days for Life campaign called “40 Days of Prayer.” Planned Parenthood had teamed up with Clergy for Choice and even created daily devotionals and prayer requests that matched the 40 Days for Life model. While they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, this was appalling – all one had to do was read the prayer requests for each day.

Here are a few:

• DAY 1: Today we pray for women for whom pregnancy is not good news, that they may know they have choices.
• DAY 5: Today we praye for medical students who want to include abortion care in their practice. May they receive good training and find good mentors.
• DAY 7: Today we pray for the 45 million American women who have had safe, legal abortions. May they stand tall and refuse shame.
• DAY 14: Today we pray for Christians everywhere to embrace the loving model of Jesus in the way he refused to shame women.
• DAY 18: Today we pray for all the staff at abortion clinics around the nation. May they be daily confirmed in the sacred care that they offer women.
• DAY 21: Today we pray for women in developing nations, that they may know the power of self-determination. May they have access to employment, education, birth control and abortion.
• DAY 36: Today we pray for the families we’ve chosen. May they know the blessing of choice.

The most telling thing about these daily “prayer” intentions is what they reveal about Planned Parenthood. They show the huge disconnect between the talking points of the abortion industry and the reality of women seeking abortions – and especially with the women who have had abortions. They also reveal the lengths the abortion business will go to in order to justify the unjustifiable. Although abortion has been permitted for decades, those who believe in it still have to justify and rationalize it every day.

How many advocates of other causes will not discuss the specifics of the cause they stand for? Environmentalists will talk about the environment, anti-war activists will talk about war, anti-capitalists will talk about Wall Street. But abortion advocates won’t talk about abortion. They will always steer the conversation away from the details of abortion and focus on this vague, abstract notion of “choice.”

These prayer intentions reveal a mindset that sees abortion as “sacred” and that wants medical students to have “good training” in abortion. Even worse, they see power in abortion. They put abortion in the same critical, must-have category as education or employment for women in developing countries.

Furthermore, their insistence that women seeking abortion are looking for a spiritual reward for their “determination” has no basis in reality. These women are scared. They feel alone. They see no other way out. That’s not determination; that’s fear. It’s not their mission to have an abortion – it’s something they want to forget about the moment it is over.

It’s even more extreme when you consider women who have had abortions. The abortion industry’s attitude towards them is simply cold and uncompassionate. Planned Parenthood has historically been unable to connect with the majority of women who have had abortions because of their ideological view that abortion empowers women.

This was never more evident than in 2006 with their failed campaign to push t-shirts that said, “I had an abortion.” They thought that women would claim they were proud of their abortions. The media had a field day with it. Of course, no one bought the t-shirt, and it was quietly pulled off the market not long after it was released.

The prayer intentions show once again how out of touch Planned Parenthood is with real women by praying that they “refuse shame,” as if something is wrong with a woman who regrets her abortion or is even uncomfortable with the fact that she has an abortion in her past. It is not odd to feel shame after an abortion – just ask a woman who has had one.

If you want to know if shame is something women can just refuse and move on from, just ask groups like the Silent No More Awareness Campaign or Rachel’s Vineyard, which have reached out and helped hundreds of thousands of post-abortive women. These groups tirelessly help women find hope and healing when Planned Parenthood expects them to move on like it’s not that big a deal.

After abortion, there is no follow-up appointment at Planned Parenthood. They want to control how women feel about it afterwards. Not only are they praying for these women to “refuse shame,” they demand that they “know the blessing of choice.” I have met hundreds of women who have had abortions and there is not one who would label their abortion as a “blessing.” The disconnect between the abortion industry’s radical view of women and the human heart is scary.

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Because of that disconnect, this mock prayer campaign became a public relations nightmare for Planned Parenthood, as the brochures with the daily prayer intentions quickly circulated online. In my hotel room in Omaha, I pulled up Foxnews.com – and there it was on the home page!

That night Fox News invited our good friend Marjorie Dannenfelser in studio for an interview. Marjorie is the director of the Washington, DC based Susan B. Anthony List, which identifies pro-life political candidates. Marjorie is a major supporter of 40 Days for Life and has seen the campaign’s grassroots impact firsthand. During the interview, Marjorie said, “Prayer is authentic. A prayer reflects exactly where you are. If it’s used as a political instrument, it’s not okay. And that’s what Planned Parenthood’s effort is.”

Fox News reported that effort was done “as a direct response to the 40 Days for Life campaign that has had support from 15,000 churches nationwide.”

Planned Parenthood’s response from their California CEO, Denise Vanden Bos, was even worse. Vanden Bos said, “Clergy for Choice believe that human life is holy and believe in all parents choosing to be a parent or not.”

Human life is holy but not as holy as the right to get rid of it?

While Planned Parenthood might have intended this as a campaign to mock you – and all people of faith who recognize the God-given dignity of every human life – it backfired, giving 40 Days for Life a massive publicity boost in more than 400 media outlets.

It is in prayer, not abortion, where real power is found. Planned Parenthood’s mock 40 Days for Prayer campaign was simply an effort to make abortion appear mainstream and even to make it sound Godly. It was extremely encouraging to see that campaign fail.

The good news is that as frustrated as we can become with our secular culture, the culture still does not accept the idea that abortion is empowering, or good – or from God.

As 40 Days for Life’s new campaign kicks off in 252 cities in 19 countries, you have the opportunity to pray on behalf of the unborn – and the opportunity to be mocked. But know that the abortion business mocks us because 40 Days for Life has an impact … and it has an impact because prayer works.

Reprinted with permission from 40 Days for Life. 

KANSAS CITY, KS, February 13, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback barely survived his 2014 re-election race, but he hasn't let that keep him from controversy.

Even as he proposed cutting the state's education budget this week, Brownback also rescinded a 2007 executive order – implemented by his predecessor, former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius – creating special protections for homosexual and ‘transgender’ employees.

The new executive order, Brownback wrote, "ensures that state employees enjoy the same civil rights as all Kansans without creating additional ‘protected classes’ as the previous order did." According to the governor, “any such expansion of ‘protected classes’ should be done by the legislature and not through unilateral action.”

Critics immediately assailed the decision, with Equality Kansas Executive Director Thomas Witt saying in a statement, "Discrimination against State of Kansas employees, in every state agency, is now permitted under Brownback’s order."

"This action by the Governor is an outrage," said Witt. "Gay, lesbian, and transgender state employees across Kansas have trusted they would be safe from discrimination and harassment in their workplace but Sam Brownback has, by erasing their job protections, declared 'open season' on every one of them."

Likewise, Center for American Progress senior fellow Ian Millhiser indicated that Brownback's executive order was unconstitutional and done to target homosexuals and transgendered people. In a post entitled "Kansas Governor Takes Mean-Spirited Swipe At Gay Rights, Forgets To Read The Constitution," Millhiser wrote, "If Kansas actually fires someone for being gay or trans, they are likely to find themselves on the wrong end of a federal lawsuit."

Millhiser, however, also acknowledged that the Supreme Court has not yet given strict guidance or constitutional interpretation on how employers treat homosexuals and transgendered persons.

Philip Cosby, executive director of the American Family Association of Kansas and Missouri, praised Brownback. "This is who Gov. Brownback is," Cosby told LifeSiteNews. "To affirm one man and one woman is not inconsistent with who he is. So those that are of the faith should be encouraged, as we do see the cultural war rage, redefining the family at a rapid rate."

Heritage Foundation legal fellow Andrew Kloster said that while "you can't target people just because you don't like them," it is legal to "hire or fire someone because of their sexual orientation due to the effect that person has on office moral."

"Brownback rescinded a lot of Executive Orders," said Kloster. "Elections have consequences. And he's allowed to manage his ship, within the confines of the Constitution of Kansas and the United States, as he sees fit. I do not believe his rescission of the order means he intends to discriminate against folks based on sexual orientation or anything, based upon his explanation of this."

In a conversation with LifeSiteNews, Witt said he's not just concerned about Brownback's policy -- he's also concerned with what he indicated is hypocrisy by his state's highest executive.

"That is not the kind of thing that needs to go through the legislative process," said Witt. "If you'll notice, right after Governor Brownback rescinded protections for gay and transgender Kansans, he added protections for veterans and disabled people. There is no need for the legislative process because EOs are only applicable to the Executive Branch employees. They are setting employment policy for state agencies under the direct control of the governor, not statute via the legislative bodies."

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A spokesperson for Brownback, however, disagreed with Witt's accusation of hypocrisy. "The Governor rescinded an Executive Order that unilaterally, and without engaging the people’s elected representatives, established additional ‘protected class rights’ for state employees," Eileen Hawley told LifeSiteNews. "Through the Governor’s Executive Order 15-02, State employees are protected by the same civil rights afforded to all Kansans – that they will not be discriminated against based on race, color, gender, religion, national origin, ancestry or age."

Regarding Witt’s point about veterans and the disabled, Hawley said the difference between the new policy and the one by Sebelius is that "the Governor is not expanding civil rights or creating a new protected class. He is simply encouraging state agencies to reach out to and hire our nation’s veterans and individuals with disabilities.”

While he agreed with Hawley, Kloster took a different tack. "He is not required to put everything in one basket," said Kloster. "There are a lot of reasons," he said, why any governor would choose to enact Executive Orders, and that choosing who to protect or not "is not hypocritical at all."

Kloster said that if Equality Kansas and other groups want to lobby for extra protection through the legislature "more power to them. But what they shouldn't try to do is suggest ill will where there is none."

However, he also said action on this matter by the legislature would impinge upon the power of the executive branch in Kansas, and could lead to a state Supreme Court challenge.

The governor can protect whomever he wishes with Executive Orders, according to Kloster, from "gays, lesbians, veterans, or underwater basket weavers. Presumably, he can do whatever category he wants."

AFA’s Cosby said Gov. Brownback "has stood where the Constitution of Kansas is, and he has stood where his conviction is. That's kind of rare, to not shy away.”