A Milwaukee-based pro-life
activist has just returned from Peru with disturbing reports of a population-control
program nearly out of control.
Dan Zeidler, an official
with Milwaukee's Family Life Council, returned from a visit to the South
American country Jan. 28.
Zeidler has long monitored
population-control and sterilization programs through his association with
the Latin American Alliance for the Family.
He told The Interim Jan.
29 that reports of involuntary sterilizations of poor women in parts of
Peru are worse than feared. A number of women have died due to unsanitary
conditions and the lack of proper medical attention.
Zeidler said an independent
investigator appointed by the Peruvian government confirmed evidence of
abuses in the population-control program.
"Ironically, it was one of
the government's own officials who confirmed the terrible conditions faced
by poor women in Peru," Zeidler said. "He didn't attempt to sweep it under
the carpet."
Nonetheless, the question
remains as to what the disclosure will mean for the future.
The Peruvian government's
National Population Policy Law was put into effect in September 1995. It
aims at reducing poverty and malnutrition by encouraging contraception
and sterilization, particularly in the country's impoverished rural areas.
"At first, it was the country's
Catholic bishops who spoke out against the program, but no one paid much
attention," Zeidler said. "It was only when feminist groups made an issue
of the poor hygiene conditions that international organizations began to
take notice."
Zeidler said there have been
efforts to uncover if United States foreign aid dollars have been used
to support Peru's population-control effort.
Pro-life groups are also
attempting to determine if the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is
involved in the Peru effort.
Pro-life Congressman Chris
Smith of New Jersey has called for further investigation into the Peru
situation, Zeidler said.
Smith, who is involved with
a congressional committee overseeing the use of American foreign aid dollars,
has dispatched aide Joseph Reese to Peru for a first-hand report.
The UNFPA and international
aid groups often insist on population-control and contraception programs
as a precondition of foreign assistance payments. These groups are often
at the forefront of the promotion of abortion and sterilization services
and abortifacients.
A program involving the involuntary
sterilization of women of child-bearing age was recently uncovered in the
Philippines.
Under the program, women
were immunized with a vaccine that had been tainted with a sterilizing
agent.
It was only through the efforts
of Catholic Church and pro-life organizations that the scandal was brought
to international attention. The sterilization campaign had been denied
repeatedly by official sources in the Philippines.
Last winter, The Interim
reported the comments of Antonio de Los Reyes, a former official with the
Philippine government's population-control program. Mr. de Los Reyes noted
a number of similarities with the Peru situation in that population controllers
generally target the poor and marginalized.
He said many governments
in the Third World bow to pressure from international organizations such
as the World Health Organization to implement family planning, contraception
and population-reduction programs.
"In many cases, bureaucrats
charged with implementing the programs are given financial incentives to
bring in more people," de Los Reyes said. Often this results in husbands
and wives being sterilized against their will, or without full knowledge
of the implications.
Unfortunately for Zeidler,
de Los Reyes and others concerned with population-control programs, there
seems to be a number of elements in the host countries that support these
efforts.
Recent reports out of Peru
have attacked the country's Catholic bishops for opposing the family planning
programs. By taking a stand against the progam, the bishops are accused
of adding to the poverty situation.
