86.
U.N.
Complicit in Forced Sterilizations
By Wendy McElroy, December 23, 2002
There is compelling evidence that the United Nations collaborated in the forced sterilization of poor, rural women in countries like Peru.
The controversy revolves around Peru’s National Program for Family Planning, which received funding from both the United Nations Population Fund and U.S. Agency for International Development. The Program included a campaign entitled Voluntary Surgical Contraception—that is, sterilization. An estimated 100,000 to 300,000 people, mostly women, were sterilized.
Some Peruvian health workers reportedly received bonuses ranging variously from $4 to $12 U.S. for each woman they “persuaded” to have a tubal ligation. Doctors and hospitals were pressured to meet sterilization quotas. It’s not surprising that reports and testimonials of forced sterilizations abound.
Felipa Cusi went to a rural clinic because she was suffering from symptoms of the flu. After being anesthetized, she was sterilized without her knowledge. Some women died as a result of such surgery. Magna Morales was kidnapped by health workers and sterilized at a makeshift clinic. Without follow-up medical care, she died 10 days later.
The controversy revolves around Peru’s National Program for Family Planning, which received funding from both the United Nations Population Fund and U.S. Agency for International Development. The Program included a campaign entitled Voluntary Surgical Contraception—that is, sterilization. An estimated 100,000 to 300,000 people, mostly women, were sterilized.
Some Peruvian health workers reportedly received bonuses ranging variously from $4 to $12 U.S. for each woman they “persuaded” to have a tubal ligation. Doctors and hospitals were pressured to meet sterilization quotas. It’s not surprising that reports and testimonials of forced sterilizations abound.
Felipa Cusi went to a rural clinic because she was suffering from symptoms of the flu. After being anesthetized, she was sterilized without her knowledge. Some women died as a result of such surgery. Magna Morales was kidnapped by health workers and sterilized at a makeshift clinic. Without follow-up medical care, she died 10 days later.
Actually, there is no scarcity of food. Krsna is so kind that he is providing food for everyone (eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman). He is feeding millions and trillions of living entities. Throughout the world there are billions of birds. Who is feeding them? Krsna is feeding them. So the real problems in the world are not overpopulation or a scarcity of food. The problem is a scarcity of God consciousness. That is why people are suffering.
~ Srila Prabhupada (Dharma: The Way of Transcendence 2)
On Jan. 11, 1998, the Miami Herald introduced Magna Morales’ story to its readership and accused the Peruvian government, then under President Alberto Fujimori, of forced sterilizations. In February, both the New York Times and the Washington Post ran articles repeating the charges.
That same month, Grover Joseph Rees, Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, released a personal account of his visit to Peru. Rees confirmed the presence of forced sterilization.
His report recommended that the U.S. discontinue funding to Peru’s family planning programs and disassociate itself from them. Rees went so far as to caution against expressing support of a billboard campaign that encouraged Peruvians to have small families. He worried that such support could be misconstrued as an endorsement of sterilization policies.
Inspite of these reports, the US government continued to fund the UNFPA despite the stories of forced sterilization coming out of Peru and of forced abortions emerging from China.
That same month, Grover Joseph Rees, Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, released a personal account of his visit to Peru. Rees confirmed the presence of forced sterilization.
His report recommended that the U.S. discontinue funding to Peru’s family planning programs and disassociate itself from them. Rees went so far as to caution against expressing support of a billboard campaign that encouraged Peruvians to have small families. He worried that such support could be misconstrued as an endorsement of sterilization policies.
Inspite of these reports, the US government continued to fund the UNFPA despite the stories of forced sterilization coming out of Peru and of forced abortions emerging from China.
The U.N. assumed no responsibility for these incidents. A July 26 press release captures the agency’s response. It denies all charges and claims that the allegations are “being disseminated through the media by PRI [Population Research Institute], a fringe group that engages in a campaign against UNFPA in pursuit of its ideological opposition to family planning.”
The Peruvian parliamentarian and medical doctor, Hector Chavez told a subcommittee investigating the forced sterilizations, “The United Nations was aware of this policy; U.N. personnel worked in the health ministry.”
In a June 2002 report entitled “Anticoncepcion Quirurgica Voluntaria” the Peruvian Congress added that, in the early 1990s, “National Population Program established demographic strategies and methods explicitly restrictive and controlling; in this line, the United Nations Population Fund, known for its support of population control in developing countries, took charge. For that end, the United Nations Population Fund acted as Technical Secretary, working in coordination with the National Population Council.”
The report concludes that the “UNFPA increased their support and even participation in the task during the government of the ex-president Alberto Fujimori, especially in the period 1995-2000.”
Abubakar Dungus, a spokesperson for the UNFPA, contends that the U.N. did not “learn” of the involuntary sterilization until “late 1997” even though reports of the abuse had been circulating in international and human rights circles long before. Upon hearing of the agonized testimony of brutalized women, the U.N. allegedly expressed “concern” to the Peruvian Ministry of Health. Unlike the U.S., it conducted no public investigation.
The Peruvian parliamentarian and medical doctor, Hector Chavez told a subcommittee investigating the forced sterilizations, “The United Nations was aware of this policy; U.N. personnel worked in the health ministry.”
In a June 2002 report entitled “Anticoncepcion Quirurgica Voluntaria” the Peruvian Congress added that, in the early 1990s, “National Population Program established demographic strategies and methods explicitly restrictive and controlling; in this line, the United Nations Population Fund, known for its support of population control in developing countries, took charge. For that end, the United Nations Population Fund acted as Technical Secretary, working in coordination with the National Population Council.”
The report concludes that the “UNFPA increased their support and even participation in the task during the government of the ex-president Alberto Fujimori, especially in the period 1995-2000.”
Abubakar Dungus, a spokesperson for the UNFPA, contends that the U.N. did not “learn” of the involuntary sterilization until “late 1997” even though reports of the abuse had been circulating in international and human rights circles long before. Upon hearing of the agonized testimony of brutalized women, the U.N. allegedly expressed “concern” to the Peruvian Ministry of Health. Unlike the U.S., it conducted no public investigation.
In Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that He is the seed-giving father of all living entities (aham bija-pradah pita [Bg. 14.4]), and therefore He is responsible for maintaining them. This is also confirmed in the Vedas. Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman: although God is one, He maintains all living entities with their necessities for life. The living entities in different forms are sons of the Lord, and therefore the father, the Supreme Lord, supplies them food according to their different bodies. The small ant is supplied a grain of sugar, and the elephant is supplied tons of food, but everyone is able to eat. Therefore there is no question of overpopulation. Because the father, Krsna, is fully opulent, there is no scarcity of food, and because there is no scarcity, the propaganda of overpopulation is only a myth.
~ Srila Prabhupada (Srimad Bhagavatam 9.20.21)
The Bush administration chose to play safe and backed away from the UNFPA and its controversial policies and withholding $34 million dollars from the agency at the same time. The proximate cause was the administration’s concern over U.N. complicity in China’s one-child policy, under which women have been forced to abort. Now other nations are coming forward with tales of atrocities committed with the U.N.’s complicity.
Policies of these people are wrong. They are pursuing the sort of bureaucratic control over women’s bodies that led to the death of Magna Morales, who was as much as murdered because she wanted to have children. No country should participate in the family planning of other nations.
(Wendy McElroy is a Research Fellow at The Independent Institute, Oakland, California.)
Policies of these people are wrong. They are pursuing the sort of bureaucratic control over women’s bodies that led to the death of Magna Morales, who was as much as murdered because she wanted to have children. No country should participate in the family planning of other nations.
(Wendy McElroy is a Research Fellow at The Independent Institute, Oakland, California.)
We cannot maintain even a small family, our capacity is so limited. At the present moment especially, in this age, a man does not like to marry because he's unable to maintain even a family, wife and children. He cannot maintain them, even a family consisting of four or five living entities.
But God is the whole family. Eko yo bahunam vidadhati. He's supplying food to the elephants. We are, we are so much advanced in civilization that because we cannot take care of a child, therefore we are killing child even within the womb of mother, abortion. We are so unfit. But God, you see, He's feeding millions of elephants in the Africa. Not only elephants, there are so many. Out of 8,400,000 species of life, there are 8,000,000 species of life nonhuman being, the majority -- the birds, beasts, reptiles, trees, so many other living entities. But they have no business. They have no occupation, profession, to maintain themselves. So who is maintaining them? Who is there? Eko yo bahunam vidadhati kaman. Even if within your room, there is a little hole, sometimes you'll find thousands of ants coming out. Have you got this experience? And who is feeding them? Who is supplying them food? They are living within that hole, millions, and hundreds and thousands of ants, but they're also eating, they're also sleeping, they have got their wife, they have got their children. But who is supplying food? So in this way, if you analyze that everything is being maintained by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is real understanding of Krsna consciousness, how Krsna is great, or God is great. So that is a real civilization of life, to understand, to appreciate, to appreciate the greatness of God. That is real civilization.
~ Srila Prabhupada (Lecture, Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.16.21 -- Hawaii, January 17, 1974)
