Steve Brown, CNSNews.com
Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2003

Population Research Institute (PRI), which says it is committed to "stopping human rights abuses committed in the name of family planning," claims to have detailed instances in which pamphlets were distributed to teen-agers and adolescents in Honduras, featuring advertisements for colored and flavored condoms.

The pamphlets, according to PRI, "depict the faces of young boys and children as young as seven years of age."

Another document, a USAID manual called "Speaking About Sexuality with Young People," was allegedly an attempt to get "boys and girls" to "acknowledge the existence of homosexuality in the population," and has been promoted in schools throughout Honduras, PRI stated.

Try It, You'll Like It!

According to its own translation of the Spanish-language manual, which features pictures of transvestites, teachers are instructed to ask schoolchildren questions such as, "If you have never had sex with a person of the same sex, how do you know if you would prefer it?"

The manual also points to poet/playwright Oscar Wilde and famed warrior Alexander the Great as homosexual heroes, according to PRI.

USAID, while conceding that such publications and activities existed, said they were no longer produced or distributed.

"On the Honduras pamphlet in question, that is a brochure that was printed under the previous administration in 1997," Ellen Yount, USAID spokesperson told CNSNews.com.

But PRI was unconvinced, basing its findings on recent field excursions by its personnel into African, Central and South American countries.

"We had higher hopes and expectations of USAID in the Bush administration, but unfortunately what we're being told by people on the ground in every continent is that nothing has changed," Scott Weinberg, PRI director of government affairs, told CNSNews.com.

"There's been no improvement in USAID's support of harmful, hurtful or just plain ridiculous programs in Africa and in Central and South America, and in Asia," he said.

PRI also reported that pro-abortion groups are using a loophole to get around the Bush administration's Mexico City Policy, which forbids any U.S. government funding of abortions.

Marie Stopes International (MSI), a British-based provider of sexual and reproductive health information and a harsh critic of the Mexico City Policy, was singled out by PRI for allegedly trying to undermine the policy.

According to an April 2003 newsletter, "PRI investigators have discovered that 'manual vacuum' abortions are being performed in Kenya, illegally, by Marie Stopes International."

A Deadly Form of 'Menstrual Regulation'

The newsletter claimed that an MSI official admitted that manual vacuum aspirators (MVAs), hand-held suction devices, were being used to perform abortions up to and even past 16 weeks' gestation, and that the abortions were being labeled "post-abortion care" or "menstrual regulation."

"USAID-funded 'family planning' groups work with Marie Stopes and United Nations Population Fund Agencies to promote MVAs and 'post-abortion care' throughout Africa," the PRI newsletter stated. "According to Population Services International (PSI), a group that receives USAID funding, the Mexico City Policy is easily circumvented."

According to PRI, its investigators entered the Marie Stopes Mbale Center clinic and interviewed clinic manager Moses Ferdinand this past March. PRI claimed it asked Ferdinand: "Is there a legal problem with Marie Stopes doing 'MR' or 'post-abortion care' – because these procedures might be considered to be abortion?"

Ferdinand responded: "MR is abortion, so we include it under [post abortion care]," PRI stated.

Ferdinand added that this tactic, to do MVA abortion while categorizing it as post-abortion care, is employed by MSI in all of its 21 clinics in Kenya, PRI alleged. The procedure normally takes between five and 10 minutes, Ferdinand is quoted as having said, and is performed without anesthesia.

"Depending on the courage of the medic," Ferdinand told PRI, an MVA abortion could be performed on a woman "past 16 weeks gestation."

But Yount told CNSNews.com that MSI currently received no current funding from USAID.

Marie Stopes International, in a 2002 release, attacked the Mexico City Policy as a decision that would "have a profound impact on many family planning agencies' capability to deliver quality contraceptive services."

Is There Such a Thing as a 'Safe' Abortion?

It would also result "in a sharp increase in the number of unsafe abortions, as well as an inevitable rise in the incidence of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV AIDS," Patricia Hindmarsh, MSI's director of external relations, stated in the 2002 release soon after the Mexico City Policy was adopted. The policy would condemn "millions of women," Hindmarsh said.

At the present time, Yount told CNSNews.com, "USAID promotes a balanced, ABC approach to HIV prevention: A for abstinence, B for being faithful, and C for the responsible use of condoms, especially for high-risk situations.

"We do not support condom-only programs, even in our high-risk population. We encourage behavioral change. Clearly the emphasis of this administration and USAID has been on that balanced approach in which abstinence plays a prominent part," Yount said.

Taxpayer-Supplied Sex Aids

Another non-governmental organization reportedly receiving USAID funds, Family Health International (FHI), "promotes programs designed to provide lubricants for men who have sex with other men" according to PRI.

"In 2001, FHI received $85 million from USAID to promote sex education to children and teens," PRI stated in a release. "FHI's program, titled YouthNet, provides IUDs, contraceptive pills and Depo-Provera to children as young as ten years old in developing nations. Post-abortion care (a euphemism for manual vacuum abortion) is also available to children."

When CNSNews.com contacted FHI, the organization sent the following response via e-mail:

"FHI is devoted to preventing HIV/AIDS and safeguarding family health through effective public health efforts, while respecting local cultures, faiths and values. Our energies are best directed at these aims rather than at answering unfounded allegations. Our a www.fhi.org website reflects the work we do to promote public health and we count on responsible news organizations to refrain from communicating inaccurate allegations for which there is no basis in evidence."

Weinberg pointed out that as a result of PRI's efforts and those of other concerned groups, the Bush administration has been made aware of these activities. The administration has responded that it was looking into the situation, Weinberg said.

"They were really grateful that we had brought it to their attention," Weinberg said.

Copyright CNSNews.com

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Clinton Scandals
Latin America
United Nations
Editor's note:
Have an Opinion About This? Click Here to Send an URGENT PriorityGram Today