アメリカでまたもや、セクシュアル・リプロダクティブヘルスサービス

署名募集です。CHANGEから届いたメールをお知らせします。米・ブッシュ政権の引き続きの愚行です。マリーストーブスインターナショナルという、イギリスに本拠地がある家族計画サービスをはじめとするセクシュアルリプロダクティブヘルスサービスを展開する組織への支援を米国が打ち切る方針を打ち出し、途上国で暮らす多くの女性たちの生命と健康が脅かされようとしています。

Your action is needed today!

Dear Fumi,

As you may have heard, a few weeks ago President Bush and his administration took another step in rolling back the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women across the world.

Background

In an alarming move, administration officials have instructed personnel at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in six African countries--including Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe--to ensure that recipient governments do not distribute U.S.-donated contraceptive supplies to Marie Stopes International (MSI), a UK-based organization that provides family planning services globally. This decision could deny vital family planning and HIV prevention services to thousands of women who use MSI's services--the majority of whom live in rural and underserved areas--and increase the likelihood of unsafe abortion and maternal death.

The Bush administration justifies this action by citing a provision in U.S. law called the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, which prohibits funding for entities that support or promote coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization. The U.S. government, however, has not provided evidence that MSI supports or promotes these practices, and the U.S. does not fund MSI. The administration reasons that because MSI works with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in China, which in turn has been accused of violating Kemp-Kasten, it is justified in preventing any U.S.-donated contraceptives from reaching MSI. This is an unfounded, politically-motivated move that jeopardizes the health, rights, and lives of women internationally.

Endorse the international sign-on letter

The Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) is seeking endorsements from leaders of international organizations for a sign-on letter to USAID expressing our deep concerns about this dangerous decision. To read the letter, please see below.

If you would like to endorse the letter, please e-mail Kim Whipkey of CHANGE at kwhipkey@genderhealth.org by 5:00pm EDT on Tuesday, October 21, 2008. Please send your name, your title/position, the name of your organization (for identification purposes only), and your country.

We will send you the final letter with all signatories shortly after its submission to USAID.

Thank you for joining colleagues and allies around the world in this effort to ensure that all women, men, and families have meaningful access to essential family planning and HIV prevention services. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or for more information.

In solidarity,
Serra

Serra Sippel
Executive Director
Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)
6930 Carroll Ave, Suite 910
Takoma Park, MD 20912 -- USA
ssippel@genderhealth.org

1. 1.301.270.1182

October XX, 2008

Kent Hill
RRB 3.06-072
U.S. Agency for International Development
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20523-3100

Dear Mr. Hill,

As leaders of international organizations committed to the sexual and reproductive health and human rights of women, men and youth globally, we are writing to express our deep concern over USAID's recent decision to interfere with Marie Stopes International's (MSI) access to contraceptive supplies in Africa. We ask you to rescind your instructions to U.S. Missions to urge host governments to ensure that U.S.-donated contraceptive supplies do not reach MSI. National health systems are already over-burdened. To impose an onerous task such as separating out donated contraceptive supplies is unjust and violates the rights of individuals to enjoy--and impedes government commitments to provide--the highest attainable standard of health.

According to MSI, the USAID decision will "seriously disrupt" family planning programs in at least six African countries--including Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe--leaving women and families with fewer family planning and HIV prevention options. The countries being targeted by USAID have some of the highest rates of unmet need for family planning, not discounting high HIV/AIDS prevalence, and the impact of such a decision will be devastating.

USAID has responded that the cut-off of supplies to MSI will not result in an increase in unintended pregnancies or maternal deaths because the supplies will be re-routed to other aid groups in those countries. However, a majority of MSI's family planning impact is in rural, underserved areas where women are particularly vulnerable to illness and disease as well as unexpected pregnancy. To deny them supplies will indeed have a grave impact on access for women and their partners.

The motion to ban contraceptive supplies to MSI under the guise of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment is unfounded. Marie Stopes International does not support coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in China or elsewhere. Rather, the organization is a leader in increasing the availability of voluntary, client-centered family planning services in China and in countries around the world. Moreover, organizations such as MSI that do not receive U.S. funding were surely never intended by Congress to be a target of the Amendment.

We wholeheartedly urge you to reconsider USAID's instruction to African countries that they take measures to ensure that no U.S.-donated contraceptive supplies reach Marie Stopes International. As MSI is one of the world's leading family planning organizations, this decision is sure to have a detrimental impact on women who need their services the most. This decision not only undermines the sovereign decision-making of these governments, but it also weakens U.S. efforts to reduce maternal deaths in developing countries. Furthermore, it unfairly politicizes women's health and rights while also putting their lives in jeopardy.

Sincerely,

Organizations listed for identification purposes only.

List in formation

Carmen Barroso
Director, International Planned Parenthood/Western Hemisphere Region
USA/International

Mabel Bianco
Founder and Director, Foundation for Studies and Research on Women (FEIM)
Argentina

Beri Hull
Global Advocacy Officer, The International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (ICW)
USA/International

Alessandra Nilo
Executive Coordinator, Gestos
Brazil

Steven Sinding
Senior Fellow, Guttmacher Institute
Former Director, Office of Population, USAID (1983-1986)
Former Director, USAID Mission to Kenya (1986-1990)
USA

Serra Sippel
Executive Director, Center for Health and Gender Equity
USA