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Update: After publication, Catholic Relief Services replied to LifeSiteNews' request for comment on Jhpiego's award. Their statement is available here.

BALTIMORE, MD, April 17, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A pro-abortion grantee of Catholic Relief Services has been announced as the winner of the 2014 United Nations Population Award.  The award is given to organizations that demonstrate outstanding effectiveness in population control efforts, including contraception, sterilization and abortion.

The grantee, Jhpiego, is a non-profit health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. According to CRS’ 990s for 2012, the U.S. bishops’ organization gave Jhpiego a grant of $282,356 that year for “health.” As part of their work, the group has spearheaded national campaigns in the developing world to promote the abortifacient morning-after pill.

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According to a press release from the group, “The award was given to Jhpiego for its four decades of work in creating access to innovative, high-quality family planning and reproductive health services throughout the developing world.”

“Today is a proud moment in Jhpiego's history,“ said CEO Leslie Mancuso. “It is the culmination of 40 years of work on behalf of women and their families and secures Jhpiego's legacy as a world leader in family planning and reproductive health.”

The release says Jhpiego “was founded in 1973 in Baltimore to share reproductive health breakthroughs, such as laparoscopy and modern contraceptives, with physicians, nurses, midwives and health administrators in the developing world.” 

Jhpiego trains medical professionals in poor countries to promote long-term contraceptives and sterilization on men and women, making promotion of “family planning” an integral part of every doctor’s visit.  Even routine children’s vaccinations are seen as a chance to promote population control measures, with doctors and nurses being trained to interrogate parents about their plans for long-term contraception at each and every visit.

In a profile on Jhpiego’s work in Malawi, the group indicates that it planned and implemented a national program to promote the abortifacient “emergency contraception” in the country between 1999 and 2007.

The organization’s training materials for Kenyan health workers state: “Miss no opportunity!  At every immunization visit, ASK about family planning intentions.”  The authors lamented Kenyan men’s resistance to voluntary sterilization, saying, “There is a 6 month waiting list for vasectomy in England.  Why isn’t this method in as much demand in Kenya?”  The training includes role play on how to overcome objections to contraception, even objections based in religious or ethical beliefs.

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“Mr. Otieno is your neighbor and has 5 children,” the training manual reads.  “His wife is pregnant and is due in a couple of months.  The couple dose [sic] not believe in family planning and so do not use contraception. … Role play how would you counsel this couple and convince them to use FP [family planning].”

Catholic Relief Services has often been criticized for their partnerships with groups that violate Church teaching on grave spiritual matters, but the organization says on its website that it is willing to overlook the sinful actions of certain grant recipients in order to fund the good work that they do. For example, grants given to the pro-abortion group CARE International were earmarked for agriculture, emergencies and general welfare, and were not supposed to be used for family planning.

A report released by American Life League in September 2013 revealed that 86 percent of CRS’ grants to domestic groups in 2012 went to groups that promote contraceptives, in addition to, in some cases, other evils such as abortion, the abortifacient “morning-after pill,” and homosexuality.

In 2013, the Catholic aid organization gave a $2.7 million grant to Population Services International, which markets a “Safe Abort Kit” in developing countries.

LifeSiteNews reached out to CRS officials by phone and e-mail to ask what the nearly $300,000 in funding they provided to Jhpiego in 2012 was intended for, and whether the group’s receipt of the UNFPA award would affect their relationship in the future.  However, CRS did not respond to our requests for comment by press time.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will give Jhpiego the award at a ceremony on June 12.