OneWorld.net (U.S.)

OneWorld.net's take: The U.S. government's international aid agency announced last week that it will no longer supply one of the largest family planning organizations worldwide with contraceptive materials.

• A nursing mother in Sierra Leone, where Marie Stopes International provides family planning services. © gbaku (Flickr)Family planning initiatives by Marie Stopes International (MSI), the organization in question, "prevented 5-7 million unwanted pregnancies in 2007 alone, thus preventing 1-1.5 million abortions. Most of these abortions would have been unsafe, putting women's lives at risk," according to Dana Hovig of MSI.

• In 2002, U.S. President George Bush cancelled a $34 million allocation to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) -- alleging that the funding proposal violated a law that prohibits U.S. foreign aid to any organization that supports coercive abortion -- even though there had been no change in UNFPA's activities since 2001.

USAID Bans Supplies to Leading Family Planning Organization

From:  Feminist Majority Foundation

October 2, 2008

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) gave instructions to its staff in several African nations yesterday to no longer provide US funded contraception supplies to Marie Stopes International (MSI). MSI is one of the largest family planning organizations in the world.

According to the Africa Science News Service, Assistant Administrator for Global Health Kent Hill said the new instructions were issued because MSI also works with the Chinese government, whom he said participates in "coercive abortion and involuntary sterilizations." Under the Kemp-Kasten Amendment (see PDF) of the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1985, US foreign aid cannot be given to any organization that, according to the President, "supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."

MSI Chief Executive Dana Hovig said in a press release that MSI does not support coercive abortions or involuntary sterilizations in any country, including China. "MSI is one of the few organizations that has worked over the past decade to increase the availability of voluntary, client-centered family planning services in China," Hovig said. He also stated the new instructions effect family planning programs in at least six African countries, including Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe leaving many African women with few options to prevent pregnancy.

MSI administers sexual and reproductive health programs throughout 43 countries. MSI prevented more than five million unwanted pregnancies and, consequently, one million abortions globally in 2007, according to the Africa Science News Service.

Click here for more information from the Feminist Majority Foundation about U.S. policies that affect women around the world.