[back] Sterilisation  Philippines

Friday July 14, 2006

By Gudrun Schultz

PHILIPPINES, July 14, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – United States tax dollars are funding sterilization programs in the Philippines, reported Focus on the Family’s Family News in Focus today.

The Filipino Family Fund raised the alarm in November 2005 with initial reports of sterilization quotas in two provinces, triggering a U.S. investigation last March. The ongoing investigation has confirmed that “target quota” systems were set up in at least two provinces. A full report to Congress is expected shortly.

“This is the tip of the iceberg. If the U.S. government is now discovering quota systems to sterilize women have been in place for years, what other practices are violating women’s health or harming our families with U.S. tax dollars?” said Eileen Macapanas Cosby, executive director of the Filipino Family Fund.

According to a press release by the organization, Filipino healthcare workers contracted by USAID have been using quota systems to sterilize women. Many of the healthcare professionals are working as affiliates of International Planned Parenthood, which is committed to establishing population control programs in the Catholic nation.

Female sterilization has become a favourite approach to artificially limiting family size in the country, although Filipino men have also been targeted with USAID-funded programs offering free chemical vasectomies.

Dr. Ligaya Acosta, former Philippine Dept. of Health official, resigned in protest over policies pushing sterilization.

“Health workers are given stiff targets or quotas for contraceptive acceptors and sterilization services each month,” Dr. Acosta reported to the FFF. “Awards and incentives are given to high performers, and for those who don’t perform well, no additional funds are given. Huge case incentives and grants are usually too big to ignore. Acceptors are not told about the side effects of artificial contraception.”

USAID has followed an aggressive policy of promoting population control in developing countries.

“It’s special interest groups like Planned Parenthood who have been making a business out of this for I don’t know how long and as long as they continue doing this, they are making millions,” Mercedes Wilson with Family of the Americas Foundation told Family News.

The Philippines has been fighting efforts to bring in mandatory policies restricting family size to just two children. The Filipino bishops have stepped to the forefront in the battle, rallying Catholic opposition to enforced population control.

In 2005, the Philippine Ambassador to the UN, Lauro Baja Jr., said the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) had allotted the equivalent of US $26 million to fund reproductive health programs (typically including artificial contraceptives, sterilization and abortion).

In the declassified 1974 document, National Security Study Memorandum 200, the US listed the Philippines among nations to be targeted with radical population control measures, to be imposed through the United Nations aid programmes.

Read coverage by Family News in Focus:

http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0041233.cfm

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Thousands Rally in Philippines to Protest Population Control Bill
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/mar/05030705.html

THOUSANDS OF PHILIPPINE MEN UNDERGO CHEMICAL VASECTOMY IN USAID FUNDED PROGRAM
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/apr/03040905.html

Philippines Mayor Orders Police to Continue Abortion Pill Crackdown
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06042601.htmll