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Contact: Tony Kerridge(London): 020 7574 7353 / 07949 309533
Suzanne Olds(Washington DC): +410 295 3558
The impact of the US Governments decisionnot to fund abortion-related activities is beginning to bite across Africa,with family planning programmes facing closure and cutbacks, reports globalreproductive health agency Marie Stopes International (MSI).
One of President Bushs first decisions inoffice was to reinstate the so-called Mexico City Policy, which stops moneyfrom USAID going to any organisation involved in performing or promoting abortion,or even raising the issue in counselling sessions with women.
But the ban is having wide-reaching effectsacross the entire reproductive health arena, with activities including motherand child survival, obstetrics and HIV prevention all being hit due to thewithdrawal of funding.
MSI stands to lose several million dollarsacross its global partnership, with Marie Stopes Kenya (MSK) being worstaffected. MSK had expected significant levels of USAID funding for a number ofkey projects, but has just found out that money has been stopped.
This has resulted in the immediate closureof two vital reproductive health centres in the slum areas of Nairobi andKisumu, which provided a range of mother and child health services and familyplanning to some of Kenyas poorest communities.
Seven more clinics may face closure laterin the year, including two obstetrics nursing homes.
Given the current difficult economiccircumstances in Kenya, the loss of USAID funding has come as a complete bodyblow to Marie Stopes Kenya said MSIs Africa Regional Director, Ms SueNewport.
Abortion is illegal across most Africancountries, but our programmes are still affected by the Mexico City ban becausethe Marie Stopes International partnership has always been vocal about the needfor safe abortion services.
At least 70,000 women die every year as aresult of unsafe, illegal abortion attempts. The irony is that this US policy will result in more abortions,not fewer. In depriving access tocontraception and basic reproductive health choices through these unavoidableclinic closures, Mr Bush has condemned more women to face crisis pregnanciesand resort to desperate, life-threatening methods to abort.
The MSK team had received US$1.6 millionfrom USAID from 1998-2000 for training in reproductive health.
In a recent letter, the director of AMKENI,Albert Henn, stated that MSK had been dropped from the project because it wasnot in a position to sign the USAID contract, agreeing not to speak publiclyabout safe abortion.
This leaves the AMKENI Project with aserious gap in the institutional partnership we were counting upon being ableto mobilize. In particular, we weredepending upon MSK to help us reverse the lamentable drop in the use of longterm and permanent contraceptive methods in Kenya, wrote Mr Henn.
We will be hard-pressed to find anotherpartner that could play this important role as effectively as Marie Stopes.
MSK is now set to lose one fifth of itsnational workforce and remaining team members face salary cuts in a bid to keepthe programme afloat.
Marie Stopes Tanzania also faces problems,with an expected loss of US$170,000 over the next 12 months.
In Ethiopia, the Marie Stopes Internationalpartner has been forced to end a critical grassroots reproductive healthprogramme which served some of the countrys poorest and most marginalisedcommunities. The loss of fundingamounts to more than US$70,000 over the next 12 months.
Marie Stopes International, based inLondon, UK, is now approaching other funders to cover the shortfalls, but itwill be too late to save some of the clinics serving the poorest of the poor inAfrica.
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