Posted on 01/10/2014 2:39:57 PM PST by NYer
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 9, 2014 (C-FAM.org) - Lawyers for U.S. government agencies have failed in an initial attempt to force a watchdog group to remove leaked documents from the group’s website. The documents describe studies showing complications of a long-lasting contraceptive heavily backed by the agencies and the Gates Foundation for use by African women.
The U.S. agencies are accused of attempting to conceal their knowledge of studies showing women using the injectable contraceptive Depo Provera are at higher risk of getting HIV/AIDS.
Allowing The Rebecca Project to publish the information means “this issue of Depo Provera’s harm now has to be decided in a court of law, where a judge will review scientific and social research data,” Kwame Fosu, the group’s policy director, told the Friday Fax.
The US Agency of International Development (USAID) and the Gates Foundation have spent millions of dollars to increase injectable contraceptive use among women in high-HIV communities in sub-Sahara Africa.
Legal representatives for USAID and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) filed a copyright infringement complaint to force The Rebecca Project to remove classified documents from its website. The documents were used at a closed-door meeting in Geneva of the World Health Organization, USAID, CDC, and Gates officials.
The meeting convened shortly after the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal published a study by Dr. Renee Heffron. It indicated women using Depo Provera had an increased risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.
One of the two classified documents posted by Fosu details several studies examining the link between injectable contraceptives and HIV transmission. While 11 of 15 studies reported the same result as Dr. Heffron, the WHO nonetheless issued a “Technical Statement” that the research was “inconclusive.”
Fosu charges the WHO guidelines “provided cover” for USAID, Gates, International Planned Parenthood, Pfizer, and others to continue “as usual” and protect the millions allocated to making Depo available to African women.
Months later Melinda Gates launched a $4 billion partnership, which includes funding to produce and deliver the injectable Depo Provera.
The second classified document obtained by Fosu was authored by Chelsea Polis of USAID and Kathryn Curtis with CDC. It heavily influenced the WHO review staff to determine there was “insufficient reason” to withdraw Depo Provera and enforce mandatory warnings. Fosu claims the Polis and Curtis analysis “water[ed] down available evidence” by ignoring key research.
Despite attempts to conceal the harmful side effects, more poor women are abandoning use of Depo Provera. Compared with other contraceptive methods, women in less developed countries are more likely to stop using Depo Provera within a year of their first dose due to associated side effects and health concerns. A Population Reference Bureau report on worldwide family planning also indicates the injectable contraceptive is not used by women in affluent countries.
Fosu successfully refuted the legal attack to remove the documents citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemption for human rights and educational organizations that are providing information to protect vulnerable populations.
“Considering the overwhelming evidence of Depo Provera’s harm,” said Fosu “it is incumbent on Health Ministers in targeted developing countries to restrict or ban Depo Provera as a family planning option – exactly what Israel did in 2013 to protect women.”
In Ghana, human rights expert Dr. Charlotte Abaka, the former Chair of the UN women’s treaty committee, now advocates ending or restricting Depo Provera.
Ping!
This must be that those women are not afraid of pregnancy so they are engaging in more sex. There doesn’t seem to be an actual cause in having hormones circulating vs HIV getting into the bloodstream.
Bill Gates is a eugenist
I agree. I think the Depo is not causing more HIV/AIDS. It is misleading, to say the least.
Sucks for the Depo people that their brand name was used. This would also apply to any implant. I guess its just way easier to run around shooting people every 3 months over there.
Or maybe the shots are messing with the immune systems of these women. Or maybe a little of both.
Correlation is not causation.
In this case, I would suspect that women who sign up for a multi-year birth control implant are statistically much more likely to do so because of high numbers of sexual partners (read that as prostitutes frequently engaged in high risk behavior with multiple random and diseased partners) and are therefore much more likely to become infected in the course of working their chosen profession.
Yup, probably more sex. With more people.
Blatant misuse of statistics.
The more women use Depo Provera
the less the fear pregnancy and
the more often they will engage in
unprotected sex. It’s the increase
in THAT number that leads to the
increase in HIV. The drug itself has
NOTHING to do with the increased
infection rate. Pissant shyster
lawyers busy destroying another
drug company for profit and the
blackrobed pirates infesting court
benches are allowing it...since they
are still a member of the “club” of
lawyers. They take care of their own.
Maybe it isn’t Depo-Provera... or ‘just’ Depo-Provera.
Sharpton and Jesse, please pick up the red courtesy phones.
Interesting asymmetry. Isn't it used for "chemical castration" in males?
The entire premise of birth control pills and morning after pills is that getting pregnant is worse than contracting an STD.
>>Interesting asymmetry. Isn’t it used for “chemical castration” in males?
Yes, but this is a much smaller use than its use as a long-acting female contraceptive.
The syringes may themselves be a vector of transmission. Needle-sharing drug users are one of the at-risk populations for HIV/AIDS.
correlation is NOT causation
Don't make the mistake of thinking the damned HHS mandate is all about condoms or even the Pill. By no means. It's about long-term impairment of female physiological function, targeting the whole female population. The marketing push is on.
The aim is to cut the birthrate in OUR country, which is already below replacement. Replacement fertility is 2.11 -- at last calculation, US fertility has dropped to 1.85 since 2008.
Even though they know that chronically jiggering the hormonal level seriously increases infection risk for AIDS and the new, "improved" cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea.
This is what they call "women's health."
For our daughters and granddaughters!
Unconscionable evil.
And don’t forget the free surgical sterilization!
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