In the latest fight over the "gag rule," the Bush administration last month stopped providing contraceptives to Marie Stopes International (MSI), a UK-based international family planning provider. While the US does not provide direct monetary assistance to MSI, the organization's extensive network distributes US-funded contraceptives internationally. This ban will impact MSI's outreach efforts in Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
The decision to cease coordination efforts with MSI was made after USAID determined that "MSI is the major implementer of the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) family planning program in China." Since 2002, the Bush administration has blocked Congressional support for UNFPA because of its work in China, citing the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, which prohibits US foreign aid to any organization that "supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization".
MSI's Chief Executive Dana Hovig denied that the organization is supporting abortion or sterilization in China. In a recent press release, he claims "To the contrary, MSI is one of the few organizations that has worked over the past decade to increase the availability of voluntary, client-centered family planning services in China."
A number of health service organizations have allied with MSI, including EuroNGOs, Population Action International, Advocates for Action, Asia Pacific Alliance, and the Center for Reproductive Rights. Their statement is located here.
According to the Population Reference Bureau's 2008 Data Sheet, the percentage of married women ages 15-49 using family planning services ranges from 5-60% in the countries impacted by the Administration's ruling. The unmet need for family planning services for spacing births varies: Zimbabwe (8%); Tanzania (15%); Malawi (17%); Ghana (22%); Sierra Leone (24%); Uganda (25%). Family planning services for limiting births also varies: Zimbabwe (5%); Sierra Leone and Tanzania (7%); Malawi (10%); Ghana (12%); Uganda (16%). Data on contraceptive practices are usually collected for married women.
Currently, MSI operates 84 clinics in the six affected African countries. In Tanzania and Malawi, MSI provides 20% of total family planning services through static clinics, mobile clinics, rural outreach teams, community volunteers, social marketing, social franchising, work-based initiatives, peer education programs, community based-activities, and refugee/IDP camps. The State Department says that USAID will continue to "supply the same volume of commodities to these countries and will do everything possible to ensure that its program objectives are accomplished through other partners."
