The Bush administration has penalized an international charity in Africa because of work it does in China, a step the group says is politically motivated and dangerous for poor African women and girls.
The State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID – Amerikas Danida) denied the charges but said Thursday they had told six African governments to stop giving US-donated contraceptives to the British-based Marie Stopes International family planning organization for distribution to their needy populations.
The move affects Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe and follows a determination by USAID that the organization is a major player in a UN program in China that the administration says promotes coerced abortion and sterilization.
The United States does not give any direct assistance to the group but is a leading family planning health provider and one of several distributors of US-donated “contraceptive commodities,” including condoms and intrauterine devices, in some of Africas least developed countries.
Under US law, the government must withhold aid to agencies and groups found to support or participate in management of family planning programs abroad that involve abortion or coerced sterilization.
Marie Stopes International, one of the worlds largest family planning organizations, complained bitterly about the step.
The State Department and USAID noted that the same amount of US-donated contraceptive supplies would be sent to the countries in question, and they “will do everything possible” to make sure the contraceptives are distributed in the same countries by other groups.
Kilde: The Push Journal
