WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- An independent investigation has found
that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in its association with the
National Population Council of Mexico (CONAPO), supports involuntary
sterilization and coercive family planning in Mexico.
According to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which
recently denounced coercion in family planning programs throughout Mexico,
"Public health servants have imposed methods of family planning on the native
population without their consent and without informing them of the risks."
Threats and bribes are used to deprive men and women of their right to
determine for themselves the timing and spacing of pregnancies.
It has also been found that CONAPO has established national quotas (for
family planning users) which are fulfilled by regional hospitals and by teams
of local family planning workers. CONAPO's coercive family planning program,
which involves forced sterilization, is heavily supported by UNFPA with
financial, strategic, technical and medical support. In its fourth cycle of
assistance with Mexico, UNFPA is scheduled to provide $12 million for
population control over the next five years.
Over 40 case studies of victims were obtained in Mexico this summer,
noting the following abuses: covert abortion under the guise of "normalization
of menstruation"; clandestine placement of IUDs, and involuntary signing of
"informed consent" documents in order to sterilize victim. In one alarming
case, a woman testified that, while undergoing a caesarian delivery, her
fallopian tubes were ligated (tied) without her foreknowledge or consent.
The US State Department recently denounced UNFPA for helping China to more
effectively carry out its program of forced abortion. UNFPA has also supported
coercion in Vietnam and Peru. The Peruvian Congress recently condemned UNFPA
for its involvement in ex-President Fujimori's forced sterilization campaign.
"UNFPA supports forced abortion in China and other totalitarian nations,"
said Steven Mosher, president of PRI. "But Mexico is a free country. The Fox
administration must end coercive population control programs aimed at Mexico's
most vulnerable citizens."
The Population Research Institute is committed to ending human rights
abuses committed in the name of "family planning."
SOURCE Population Research Institute
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Related links:
http://www.pop.org
CONTACT:
Scott Weinberg of Population Research
Institute, +1-540-622-5240, ext. 209
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