THE TRUTH ABOUT 'FAMILY PLANNING'

hen the U.S. Congress approved last month a measure to disburse population control funds more speedily around the world, Dr. Stephen Karanja, a Kenyan obstetrician and gynecologist, was sorely disappointed.

Yet he understood why some lawmakers voted as they did. "Many of those poor people in [Congress] do not know what they are doing," he said. "They do not understand what they are voting for."

Karanja is one of a small but growing number of doctors, nurses and lay people in the Third World who are willing to risk their careers and, in some cases, fines and imprisonment to call attention to the havoc U.S. population-control programs inflict on their lives and countries.

Three days before the House of Representatives voted on the measure Feb. 13, Karanja joined a fellow doctor and two poor mothers from Mexico, as well as a nurse from the Philippines, in an unprecedented press conference in Washington.

Sponsored by the Population Research Institute, the conference was intended to inform the American public -- particularly the 535 men and women in Congress -- that U.S. taxpayer-supported programs in other countries cannot be described as "family planning," but must be seen as they really are: uninhibited population control.

Dr. Karanja

At the press conference, Karanja explained how the health care system in Kenya has "collapsed" because so much aid from the United States and other developed nations has been diverted from basic health care into "family planning."

"Thousands of Kenyan people will die of malaria -- when treatment costs but a few cents -- while health facilities are stacked to the roof with millions of dollars worth of pills, IUDs, Norplant and Depo-Provera," he said. "And most of these are supplied by American money."

Since Kenya lacks the medical infrastructure that developed nations take for granted, many birth-control devices made in the West are even more hazardous to Kenyan women than they are to Westerners.

"Some of these contraceptives and abortifacients, like Depo-Provera, cause terrible side effects to the poor people in Kenya, who do not even have competent medical check-ups before injection," Karanja explained.

"Many are maimed for life because the side effects of these drugs -- blood clots, hypertension and menstrual disorders, which can be dealt with effectively in the West -- cannot be handled by our poorer health services. Really, what is going on in Kenya is not 'family planning' but a form of genocide."

While this may sound sensational, a close look at the congressional report on Kenya of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supports Karanja's claims.

According to the agency, slightly more than $23 million of its budget will be spent in Kenya during fiscal year 1997. Of that, the agency has slated nearly $13.5 million for "fertility reduction" and "HIV/AIDS prevention."

None of the documents relating to Kenya mention much-needed drugs such as chloroquine (for malaria treatment) or other basic medical supplies. Nevertheless, the Agency for International Development will consider its Kenyan program a success if private-sector condom sales rise from this year's 500,000 per month to 1 million per month in the year 2000.

Kenyans are not alone in their plight brought on by the United States' excessive emphasis on population control, however. According to another physician at the press conference, Mexican women are enduring a similar fate.

Dr. Maria Garcia (not her real name) described the "coercive practices" she has witnessed while working in government hospitals in Mexico. The coercion begins when a woman comes to the hospital to have a baby, Garcia said.

Immediately, the woman is separated from her husband, and she is not allowed to see him from the time of the initial exam until she is discharged six hours after the delivery. Then, during her initial exam, doctors ask how she plans to avoid another pregnancy.

"If she answers, 'I plan to have more children,' or 'I plan to use the Billings Ovulation Method,' that is not acceptable," Garcia said. "The doctors will continue to harass her throughout her labor and delivery until she says that she agrees to use contraception or have a tubal ligation."

Many women submit to the pressure, which is strategically applied at a time when they are very vulnerable.

"I have seen women refuse to accept an IUD or sterilization four or five times during the early stages of labor, only to give in when the pain and pressure became too intense" she said, adding that to coerce a woman into making a contraceptive decision in such a way is extremely bad medical practice.

"The patient is not asked her gynecological history. A history of repeated vaginal infections, multiple sexual partners, etc., are contra-indications to the use of an IUD" Garcia said. "But since no history is taken, these women are given an IUD nonetheless."

And even women who do manage to hold out against the pressure still are given an IUD - over their objections. At the press conference, two poor mothers from Mexico told of how, against their wishes, IUDs were inserted anyway, immediately after delivery.

This can be extremely hazardous to a woman's health, Garcia explained. "Recently, a woman came to a clinic where I was working to ask that her IUD be removed," she said. "It had been inserted the previous month after the birth of her baby.

"The doctor in charge told her that the pain and abnormal bleeding that she was experiencing would disappear within several months. He refused to remove the IUD. She came back the following week, begging to have it removed. I took it upon myself to remove it. Infection was already apparent. This woman is now faced with the possibility of further complications such as adhesions, pelvic inflammatory disease or sterility-- serious side effects that may not be discovered until later, if ever."

According to documents from the Agency for International Development, the Mexican population-control program is "succeeding," since "contraceptive prevalence" has increased 8.3 percent since 1995.

Also, more than $12 million of the $17 million the agency will spend on aid Mexico will go toward "fertility reduction."

At the press conference, the testimony of Bernadette Ocampo, a nurse from the these Philippines, drew the most attention. Ocampo's statement detailed what many on Capitol Hill have long suspected: that U.S. taxpayer-funded organizations are involved in promoting and performing abortions overseas.

Bernadette Ocampo

"We are being subjected to propaganda paid for by U.S.-funded population-control groups to change attitudes to favor abortion," she said.

"There is an endless series of studies, surveys and conferences being funded by these groups. Their aim is to co-opt as many educational institutions and academic leaders as possible to drum up media support and public sympathy for the eventual legalization of abortion."

Ocampo pointed out that many high-level officials of the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, the local affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, have recently resigned under a cloud of scandals over plans to perform abortions on Philippine women.

She also noted that much of the Family Planning Organization's funding comes, as in the cases of Kenya and Mexico, from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"USAID had declared that one of its strategic objectives in my country is a 'reduces fertility' rate and improved 'maternal and child health,'" Ocampo said. "But of the 25-plus million dollars it spends on population and health, $22 million is for population activities and less than $3 million is for health services. Is USAID trying to help mothers in my country, or just stop them from having children?"