JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Birth control injections for poor African women condemned by SPUC

Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Birth control injections for poor African women condemned by SPUC

A new device for giving birth control injections to poor African women has been condemned by SPUC, which has strong links to Africa.
SPUC was responding to the news that Sayana Press, a self-injectable version of Depo-Provera, is to be sold at US$1 per unit. ("The one dollar contraceptive set to make family planning easier", BBC, 16 November 2014)

The media has described the device as a "contraceptive". Like most forms of hormonal birth-control, however, Sayana Press/Depo-Provera can induce early abortions by making the lining of the womb hostile to newly-conceived human embryos.

In addition to its abortifacient mode, Sayana Press is dangerous for women. Risks include:

double the risk of HIV-1 infection
2.2-fold increased risk of invasive breast cancer
permanent bone-density loss.

Sayana Press is cheap and dangerous. Treating poor, black women like this is disgraceful.

Obianuju "Uju" Echeoka, a Nigerian women's advocate, said: "This is certainly not what African women have asked for. But yet in a world of shocking cultural imperialism, it is what our Western cultural masters have chosen to unleash upon us." For Uju's full comment, see
http://www.cultureoflifeafrica.com/2014/11/western-giants-launch-dangerous-and.html

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.