US family planning policy discriminates against Africans

On Thursday, January 8, 2015, The Lancet, a leading medical journal, published yet another report stating that Depo Provera increases HIV risk by 40 percent (Melinda Gates' contraceptive of choice for Black women). The Rebecca Project for Justice has been sounding alarm bells since 2012 that Depo Provera not only increases HIV risk, but also doubles the risk of breast cancer and causes irreversible osteoporosis.

Rebecca Project successfully educated Members of Congress, and was invited by the Center for Families and Human Rights to educate UN delegates. As a public health policy Depo Provera should not be used in Africa or in regions of the world with high HIV rates, inadequate health facilities, insufficient medical staff or populations with compromised immune systems: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(14)71052-7/fulltext

TIME Magazine reporter Alice Clark gives details of the latest Depo Provera study: "Lauren Ralph, an epidemiologist at University of California San Francisco, and her colleagues conducted a review of all of the available studies on hormonal contraceptive methods-including injections of Depo Provera and Net-En that work to prevent pregnancy for about 12 weeks, as well as the pill. Among 12 studies involving nearly 40,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa, those using Depo [Provera] showed a 40% higher risk of getting HIV than those using other methods or no contraception at all." Read full TIME article here: http://time.com/3660564/contraceptives-hiv-risk/

Depo Provera Harm Deliberately Concealed from Africans

But, before this 2015 report, there was an even more significant study Lancet published in 2011 by Dr. Renee Heffron who warned Melinda Gates of increased HIV infections with injectables and progesterone contraceptives.http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/factsheets/hiv-use_of_depo_provera_put_hiv-negative_partners_at_a_greater_risk_of_contracting_the_virus.pdf

Dr. Renee Hefforn's study was more significant, because it was funded by Melinda Gates and the National Institute of Health (NIH), and, more important, because Dr. Renee Heffron warned her funders to counsel women about the risk of increased HIV infections and HIV transmission to their healthy partners. That warning was nearly a year before Melinda Gates and her intermediaries (USAID, IPPF and UNFPA) launched Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) in London in July 2012. Ten previous studies had already determined Injectables increase HIV risk:http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/Fact%20Sheets/thelancetid-d-12-00455-un-geneva-meeting-page37-fig3.pdf

Instead,Dr. Renee Heffron was attacked by Gates intermediaries who effectively used media to silence debate, discredit scientific research, and minimize injury and deaths of women using Depo Provera and other Long-term Acting Contraceptives" (LACs). The false messaging and primary talking points from Melinda Gates and USAID, has been: "...the risks of HIV, Breast Cancer, Osteoporosis, Heart Disease, and other terminal diseases, need to be balanced against the known benefits of a highly effective contraceptive, and therefore, no withdrawal of Depo Provera." Medical experts at Public Citizen, a preeminent consumer advocacy group founded by former Presidential Candidate, concluded, "There is no identifiable human population for whom the benefits of Depo-Provera outweigh the risks, and the use [of Depo Provera] is morally offensive and unacceptable."

Discriminatory U.S. Depo Provera - Family Planning Policy

Depo Provera/injectable contraceptive policies in Africa, Europe, and Israel are not analogous. Despite Melinda Gates and USAID's unequivocal claims about the safety of Depo Provera, in fact scientific reports indicate zero to negligible use of Depo Provera by European and Caucasian women: http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content/10/1/7 andhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23384291. In the UK and US where injectable contraceptive use is approximately 5 to 10 percent-- it is Blacks, Latinas, students and other minorities, targeted and administered over 95 percent of injectable contraceptives.

Comparing the percentage Depo Provera administered to women in Europe and U.S. as compared to Africa is shocking: France- zero/negligible, Italy- zero/negligible, Germany- 2%, Sweden 2%, UK 5% and US 10%; Guinea 23%, Ghana 37%, Sierra Leone 48%, Liberia 58%, Malawi 59%, Burundi 57%, Uganda 51%, and Ethiopia is the highest with 75% (see: "FP2020 Progress Report 2013-2014"- Page 169 has full list of African countries using injectables). Yet, none of these African countries have one-tenth the medical staff or medical infrastructure of the US or Europe to combat the lethal side effects of Depo Provera: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2004/20246s025lbl.pdf . Moreover, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are in the midst of an Ebola health crisis; where women already have compromised immune systems from malaria and other acute illnesses. Yet the UN, USAID and Melinda Gates are resolute about concealing Depo Provera's harm, which has been rebranded and marketed in Africa as a “self-inject” contraceptive called Sayana Press.

Israel severely restricted Depo Provera in 2013 after US funder Shira Saperstein, of the Moriah Fund, sponsored Human Rights groups to force a ban of Depo Provera in her ancestral homeland- Israel (http://www.acri.org.il/en/2013/01/29/ethiopian-contraceptive-prescriptions/). However, Shira Saperstein continues to unconscionably promote Depo Provera with Planned Parenthood/IPPF, UNFPA and other US Charities as an optimal contraceptive for low-income women and Africans.

Ultra-Paternalism and Reductive Reasoning Ultra-paternalistic and reductive reasoning from billionaires like Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, and their notable intermediaries Dr. Ronald Gray (Johns Hopkins), Dr. David Hubacher (FHI-360), Dr. Rajiv Shah (USAID), Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin (UNFPA),Chelsea Polis (USAID) and Kathryn M. Curtis (CDC), who administer or fund dehumanizing family planning regimes that target the poor and black women globally, is best explained in this Elaine Riddick interview with NBC News Brian Williams and Dr. Nancy Snyderman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nshj9rCTPdE). Elaine Riddick is an African-American woman who,was forcibly sterilized under U.S. Family Planning policy, because her family was considered too poor to reproduce and would be a burden on society. The underpinnings of current U.S. Family Planning Policy in Africa.

Poverty should never be an excuse for abject discrimination and coercion in administering injectables to achieve unjustified population-control goals. U.S. victims of Depo Provera, Norplant and other dangerous contraceptives have received millions in settlements, but no women from Africa have received compensations.

In the U.S., Gates and USAID's ultra-paternalistic family-planning policy is reinforced and consolidated by Planned Parenthood's fear-mongering and "war on women" media campaigns that target Republican policymakers. However, policymakers with moral and ethical convictions about protecting life have successfully fought back. Planned Parenthood's failure was glaringly evident in Colorado when Senator Cory Gardner (R) pushed back against viscous attacks to beat Mark Udall (D), becoming the first to defeat an incumbent senator in Colorado since 1978.

This year, we are anticipating a congressional hearing on unethical medical practices in Africa and will propose an African Ethical Medical Act (similar to AGOA), to protect and support optimal health for African women and families. African nations are at a disadvantage, in an economically captive power dynamic, when negotiating for health funding from U.S. agencies and institutions that promote coercive and lethal family planning policies that prevent women from obtaining optimal health and actualizing their infinite potential.

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Elaine Riddick is the Executive Director at the Rebecca Project for Justice and a dedicated Women’s Rights activist. Ms. Riddick is an African-American woman who was forcibly sterilizedunder U.S. Family Planning policy, because her family was considered too poor to reproduce and would be a burden on society.The underpinnings of current U.S. Family Planning Policy in Africa.

Ms. Riddick was sterilized without her consent and waged a 40 year battle for justice securing 10million dollars for surviving victims in North Carolina. Elaine studied psychology at New York City Tech and can be reached at 770-354-0583 / elaine@rebeccaprojectjustice.org.

Kwame Fosu, is an attorney, journalist, scholar, and a tireless human rights defender for women. He is a health and foreign policy expert on Africa, advising African officials, U.S. government officials, NGOs. He is Policy Director and Director of International Affairs at the Rebecca Project for Justice. Kwame Fosu received his B.A. in Criminal Justice, from the John Jay College-CUNY, M.B.A. from Pace University, and Juris Doctorate from Georgetown Law School. He can be reached at 202-406-0911 /kwame@rebeccaprojectjustice.org