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

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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