Bush cuts funding for contraception programmes

IN its dying days, the lamentable Bush administration is still managing to inflict damage through its stupidity and lack of logic.

The soon-to-gone imbecile Bush gives contraception the finger

We learned at the weekend that the US government is cutting its funding for the supply of contraceptives to family planning clinics run by Marie Stopes International in Africa.

The reason: because MSI, it claims:

Supports the Chinese national family planning programme.

In other words, it stands accused of condoning forced abortions in China.

This is nonsense, says MSI, which has categorically denied that it supports forced abortions or coercive sterilisation in China or anywhere else in the world.

And its points out that the actions of the Bush government will result in MORE abortions in Africa, as women will be unable to get contraceptives and will end up with unwanted pregnancies.

According to MSI, the inevitable consequence will be more abortions. It estimates that it will lose $1.5m worth of supplies in the next year, resulting in 325,000 extra unwanted pregnancies in the six African countries and 65,000 abortions.

Dana Hovig, chief executive officer of MSI said:

At a time when governments have pledged to increase their commitment to improving the health of women, only the Bush administration could find logic in the idea that they can reduce abortion and promote choice for women in China by causing more abortion.

According to this Guardian report:

One of George Bush’s first acts after becoming president was to stop all US funds to foreign organisations that helped women in any way to get an abortion, including providing advice. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) lost $34m that Congress had appropriated for it in 2002.

In a letter to London-based Dana Hovig, the assistant administrator for global health at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Kent Hill, said that although MSI did not currently receive any funds from the US government, “we understand that in some countries, MSI receives USAID-funded contraceptives and/or condoms from host country governments that receive them from USAID.

MSI says the USAID edict will seriously hamper its work in at least six African countries – Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. USAID is the biggest supplier of contraceptives in many African countries.