Depo-Provera / Net-En /Norplant / Sayana Press Contraceptive Policy Brief: Lethal Contraceptives Restricted Or Not Sold In Europe & U.S. But Shipped To Africa

Evolution Of Long Acting Contraceptives

Long-Acting Contraceptives, as a family-planning method, are an insidious evolution and incarnation of a bygone era of forced sterilization by the U. S. government that was supported by USAID, UNFPA, IPPF, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. Forced sterilization as international family-planning policy came to a screeching halt after Congressmen Todd Tiahrt, Christopher Smith, and Tom Coburn offered the Tiahrt Amendment[ii] in 1999, prohibiting U.S. funds from being used for “coercive family planning.”Also, the targeting of Blacks in U.S. and the inhumanity of this family-planning is discussed by Brian Williams&Dr. Nancy Snyderman in Elaine Riddick'sNBC News documentary:

In Africa, the top four long-acting contraceptives (LACs) or long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs)are Depo Provera (DMPA), Norplant, Norethisterone Enanthate—NET-EN, and Sayana Press. They have become popular means of contraception, because they are aggressively, coercively and misleadingly marketed asdiscrete, effective, and safe “optimal-contraception” for African women and girls: “your husband will never know” and “have sex with no worries about pregnancies.”

The term LAC,as compared to LARC, is a more appropriateterm of referencebecause side-effects are often fatal and irreversible. LACs directly cause or exacerbate fatal diseases such as breast cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, menorrhagia, strokes, and thrombosis (details with citations are provided in the timeline on page 4). Hypocritically, the top four LACs marketed to African governments by corporations and aid agencies,are not available,or significantly restricted and rarely used,in Europe and US. “Concern about side effects is relatively high about hormonal methods (UK 70%, Germany 52%, Spain 96%, Italy 58%, USA 69%)[iii]”

For the past three years, as the Policy Director of the Rebecca Project for Justice, I have advised several U.S. officials, African officials, African delegates at the UN, NGOs, and petitioned the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Health and Human Services (HHS) to revise label warnings for Depo Provera and other long-acting contraceptives (LACs) to clearly inform women of risk of breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, stroke and other fatal diseases; and to prosecute unethical researchers preying on vulnerable populations in Africa. The petitions were specifically forwarded to: Ronald Machen (DOJ), Jeffrey Knox (HHS-OIG, resigned now with Simpson Thacher), Peter Lurie (FDA), and Jocelyn Samuels (HHS). Also, Congress Members Christopher Smith- Chairman of Africa & Human Rights Foreign Affairs Committee, Karen Bass- Ranking member, and several other officials have received my briefings and petitions.

Our advocacy against the dumping of Depo Provera, Norplant, Sayana Press, and other dangerous LACs in Africa has been very effective: 1) The U.S. Congress has held two Briefings and we look forward to a Congressional Hearing this year. 2) Center for Families and Human Rights (C-FAM), a leading NGO protecting African families and culture at the UN, partnered with the Rebecca Project for Justice to educate and inform African delegates at the UN about lethal contraceptives.

As a result of our advocacy, on March 9, 2015, the U.N.Africa Group gave an unprecedented statement, at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) that included the subject of harmful contraceptives, and highlighted breast cancer and HIV/AIDS specifically — two lethal side effects of LACs that are deliberately concealed from African officials and African women (see second to last paragraph--page 3): http://statements.unmeetings.org/media2/4656677/sudan-african-group.pdf. 3) In 2015, the FDA revised warning label for Depo Provera to include research byDr. Christopher I. Lipublished by the

American Association for Cancer Research, which reveals a significant increase in breast cancer by 120 percent (2.2 fold):http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2015/020246s053lbl.pdf

CONTRACEPTIVE “SAFE-DRUG” FACT CHECK

To check if European or American women are using the same lethal contraceptives administered to African women go to:

1) European Medical Agency (EMA): http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/

2) United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA):

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index.cfm

When one types in a search for Depo Provera (DMPA), Sayana Press, Norethisterone Enanthate—NET-EN,and Norplant on the EMA websitethey do not exist, because they are lethal. When available in some EU countries,these LACs are rarely used, and restricted with prescriptions &warnings. However, those are thetop four contraceptives administered to African women and girls as young as 11 years old.

Similarly,when one types in a search for Depo Provera (DMPA), NET-EN,Norplant, or Sayana Press on the FDA website: NET-EN &Sayana Press do not exist and Norplant is “discontinued.” Moreover, Depo Provera requires a doctor's “prescription” and patients must be informed of drug “warnings.” African women and girls, and our officials in Africa are not informed by UNFPA, USAID and IPPF about these Patient Counseling and FDA warningson page 3,and bottom of page 17, in this link:http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2015/020246s053lbl.pdf.

GENDER-CENTERED PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY
From the “CONTRACEPTIVE FACT-CHECK” website links above, it is evident that gender-centered public health policy in Europe and the United States dictates that if long-acting contraceptives (Depo Provera, NET-EN, Norplant, Sayana Press) increase risk of fatal diseases such as: breast cancer, HIV, menorrhagia (excessive bleeding for months that lead to anemia), thrombosis (blood clots that lead to strokes) and heart disease, then those LACs are removed from the market or severely restricted with full informed consent/warnings to protect women. European women also receive routine preventive health care by experts for cancer, stroke, and other fatal diseases. Instead, condoms and low-dose oral contraceptive pills (OCs) are recommended by doctors and prescribed to over 60 percent of Caucasian/European women, see:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22078183 and http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content/10/1/7 (note: see figure 1,similar to Africans, Blacks and minorities in the US & UK are populations unethically targeted with injectables- hence the slight spike in fig 1).

Dignity of women in Africahas to be respected and supported by deliberate acts and equitable deeds that advance women's rights and self-worth—not simply by words of “empowerment” at conferences. African women deserve the same safer drugs afforded to women in Europe and in the U.S., with stringenthealth warnings. I firmly believe that the head of UNFPA, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, himself an African, is complicit in this gross crime against his own people. Dr. Osotimehin, a former Minister of Health in Nigeria, certainly has specialized knowledge and insight that these contraceptives, endorsed by UNFPA, USAID, IPPF, and aggressively marketed to Africa, are lethal and restricted with severe health warnings.Babatunde Osotimehin is aware that injectables and implants are used less than 3 percentin Germany[iv], Norway[v],Denmark[vi], and EU[vii],[viii].

However, these UNFPA sponsors actively promote DepoProvera, Norplant, and Sayana Pressas“optimal contraception” for African women, without warnings of breast cancer & HIV/AIDS risks.Evidently, theirfamily-planning policy is discriminatory towards Africans and,antithetical to the tenets of the Beijing Declarationfor women's equality andempowerment. Africans and good people of conscience must stand firm against the tacit dehumanization of African women by the United Nations and USAID family-planning policy. This fight is for our lives, our birth rights, and families. I am confident that African countries shall begin the process of banning LACs.

A TIMELINE OF LETHAL CONTRACEPTIVES: DEPO-PROVERA & NORPLANT

1967:Pfizer's subsidiary company (Upjohn Company) submits a request for approval of Depo Provera. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withholds approval of Depo-Provera, a synthetic progesterone contraceptive that is injected every three months. The synthetic progesterone hormone in Depo Provera and Sayana Press is Depo Medroxy-Progesterone Acetate (DMPA).

1978:FDA again denies approval of Depo Provera for contraception, because: 1) Research experiments on dogs confirmed an elevated rate of breast cancer; and 2) increased risk of birth defects in human fetuses exposed to the drug.

1983:FDA again denies approval of Depo Provera after powerful testimony to FDA & Congress, detailing all Depo Provera experiments that caused cancer in monkeys, by medical expert (Dr. Sydney Wolfe) from Public Citizen an NGO founded by former U.S. Presidential candidate, Ralph Nader. Dr. Wolfe testified that 'There is no identifiable human population for whom the benefits of Depo-Provera outweigh the risks, and the use [of Depo Provera] is morally offensive and unacceptable.” Read statement & citations to all cancer experiments:http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/factsheets2/1983-depo-provera-briefing-provided-to-us-congress.pdf)

1987:FDA changed its regulations after heavy lobbying from Pfizer and drug companies, and began to require cancer testing in rats and mice instead of dogs and monkeys; Depo Provera did not cause cancer in rats and mice. Human beings are closer in anatomy to monkeys that develop cancer when injected with Depo Provera.

1992:FDA approves Depo Provera as a contraceptive, despite perennial objections from Journalist Amy Goodman[ix] (Democracy Now!),Dr. Betsy Hartman[x], Public Citizen, and several women's rights groups.

1995: At a meeting in India (second most populous country - 1.2 billion people), the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) made recommendations in a statement that specified, Depo Provera is not recommended for inclusion in the National Family Planning Welfare Program, in part because the board does not believe that the government's health infrastructure has the capacity to properly manage side effects of DMPA, particularly menorrhagia. Untreated menorrhagia affects the reproductive health of women in lower socioeconomic groups who are already at risk of anemia due to poor diet.

Again in 2002, despite pressure from USAID, UNFPA, and powerful charities, the Indian Government dropped its plan to introduce Depo-Provera and Norplant for distribution through the government health services system. However, USAID, UNFPA and Gates Foundation circumvents the Indian government's National Social Welfare Program ban, by seeking separate approval to fundNGO's, including FHI-360, to supply women in remote Indian villages with DMPA, without building clinics and cancer centers to support those women who suffer from the fatal side-effects of LACs.

1996:Research reveals that progesterone has an unintended consequence of significantly increasing women's susceptibility to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) due to the fact that synthetic progesterone in Depo Provera and Norplant (also in Jadelle, Nexplanon and NuvaRing) induces thinning of the vaginal epithelium.

Researchers from Rockefeller University, Harvard Medical School, and other prominent researchers found that progesterone implants increases Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) transmission eight-fold in Simian monkeys. Progesterone multiplied their risk of SIV by 7.7-fold. See:http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v2/n10/abs/nm1096-1084.html

1998:FDA sends letter to Pfizer to halt Depo Provera advertisements, because Pfizer was concealing serious side-effects of drug from women in the U.S. http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/Fact Sheets/depo-fda-letter-false-advertising.pdf .

2002:Norplant (also rebranded as Jadelle), is another Pfizer (Wyeth) lethal long-acting contraceptive (LAC) that was pulled from the U.S. market after multimillion dollar lawsuits in the U.S., and after Connie Chung's exposé on NBC news. Norplant is an implant with the same chemical progestin/progesterone as Depo Provera, except it is implanted for five years, while Depo Provera is injected every three months.

Pfizer settled lawsuits for about 120 million in 2011--African women were not compensated.

Pfizercurrentlysupplies Norplant to Africansfree of U.S. litigation and regulatorsby licensing the contraceptive to Bayer in Germany, butGermany has not approved Norplant for sale to German women. Meanwhile the UN-WHO, lobbied byPfizer, Population Council and UNFPA, in an unconscionable act endorses Norplant as safe for Africans. The UN-WHO's excuse of “unmet need” is a novel and dehumanizing euphemismused to rationalize the unethical depopulation of Africans with Norplant; even though no western U.N. donor country knowingly administers Norplant without informed consent: http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/Fact Sheets/norplant-population-council.pdf

[If a corporation contracts with USAID, the UN-WHO will endorse the corporation's product even if it significantly harms vulnerable populations that lack adequate medical facilities. In another example, in 1972, the WHO lobbied by Monsanto, endorsed DDT as safe for Africans after lethal DDT was bannedin the US and Europe: http://www.fws.gov/contaminants/Info/DDT.html. The dehumanizing excuse back then was, only DDT is most effective to kill mosquitoes in Africa to quell malaria: http://cen.acs.org/articles/84/i39/Endorses-Indoor-Spraying-DDT.html. However, no matter what one's personal preference is for DDT and other lethal drugs, when a drug or chemical produced by the U.S. is deemed unsafe and banned in the US and Europe, then rationally, that ban should also include Africa.

Gates Foundation owns 500,000 shares of Monsanto stockand is aggressively promoting Monsanto's seeds and cancer causing GMOs in Africa—thereby, making Africa completely dependent on U.S. corporations for food:http://techrights.org/2010/08/30/bill-gates-monsanto-backlash/.]

2004:The FDA orders Pfizer to warn women of Depo Provera's harm with a Black Box warning label highlighting concerns about loss of bone density/Osteoporosis, and a warning that Depo should not be used for more than 2 years- unless there are no other contraceptives available.

2004:Pfizer sends an official letter to U.S. doctors and US health professionals warning of harm. But, Pfizer does not send warning letter to African Health Ministers or doctors. http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/factsheets/depo_provera_fda_warnings.pdf

2011:Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation & U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) fund preeminent researcher, Dr. Renee Heffron to conduct HIV/contraceptive research in Africa. Dr. Heffron publishes her findings of HIV/AIDS research in the leading medical journal Lancet. Dr. Heffron warns her funders, Gates and the NIH, to inform women in HIV/AIDS regions of the risk of injectable contraceptives and to use alternative non-progesterone-based contraceptives, because injectable contraceptives increase the risk of HIV/AIDS acquisition and transmission to their sexual partners. See research findings in Lancet: http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/factsheets/hiv-use_of_depo_provera_put_hiv-negative_partners_at_a_greater_risk_of_contracting_the_virus.pdf

Instead, for speaking up to protect African women, Gates researcher Dr. Heffron is attacked by her own colleagues funded by Gates/USAID (James Shelton- USAID, David Hubacher- FHI 360, and Ronald Gray- Johns Hopkins University).

Kwame Fosu advocated to bring awareness to Heffron's injectable/HIV research and to have it included in FDA warnings-- he was also attacked that the research was “inconclusive.”

2011:Kwame Fosu publishes an in depth report, Depo Provera: Deadly Reproductive Violence Against Women: http://rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/depo-provera-deadly-reproductive-violence-rebecca-project-for-human-rights-2013.pdf. This lead to two Congressional Briefings with: Congressman John Conyers on (2011) and Congressman William Clay (2013), and they pledged their support for Congressional Hearings to expose harm and end funding for Depo Provera (but staffers explain they are not in majority in Congress to schedule Hearings). Kwame Fosu's report is praised by Peter J. Donaldson, President of Population Council, duringhis meeting in Congress with Judiciary Counsel, Keenan Keller.

Fosu published the report after investigating an unethical Depo Provera experiment conducted in Navrongo, Ghana by Dr. James Phillipsof Columbia University and the Population Council. Dr. James Phillips violated US research laws by failing to administer informed consent forms to thousands of unsuspecting impoverished women he recruited as human subjects. Women in Navrongo and adjoining villages were injected with Depo Provera and misleadingly informed that they were being provided routine family healthcare. However, the Navrongo Experiment,inter alia, specifically tested the efficacy of Depo Provera and was an unethical, seminal, experiment conducted in furtherance of aggressive U.S. family-planning in Africa. The unethical Navrongo experiment was funded by the usual suspects: USAID, Population Council, Bill & Melinda Gates, Rockefeller & Andrew Mellon Foundations (1994-2006).

2012:Dr. Heffron responds in Lancet to her detractors -- all funded by Gates or USAID: http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/Fact Sheets/lancet_heffron_et_al_respond_to_attacks.pdf

2012:After a Jan 31, 2012 to Feb 1, 2012 “closed” meeting in Geneva, the UN-WHO endorsed the use of Depo Provera in Africa; and released a contrived eight-page Depo Provera Technical Statement, falsely claiming there is non-conclusive data about HIV infections.

However, the Rebecca Project had proof that at the Geneva meeting, World Health Organization officials were provided withthis document frompage 37 of this Chelsea Polis (USAID)/Kathryn Curtis' (CDC) reportthat clearly detailed 10 independent studies that clearly warned of HIV/AIDS and injectables:http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/Fact Sheets/thelancetid-d-12-00455-un-geneva-meeting-page37-fig3.pdf.

Therefore, one can conclude, from the body of scientific research available to the WHO that injectables increase the risk of HIV, and, therefore, African women should be at least warned to make an informed choice: http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/Fact Sheets/thelancetid-d-12-00455-un-geneva-meeting.pdf. [This full document was leaked to Kwame Fosu who subsequently published it without permission, and forced an amended publication in Lancet Infectious Journal].

Attorney representing Elsevier/CDC, Nicholas Tardif, withdrew threats of a copyright infringement lawsuit to avoid a full hearing in U.S. Court after Kwame Fosu, a human rights attorney, successfully argued that, “human rights advocates have special exceptions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), to use and disseminate information to protect and save thousands of vulnerable children, girls and women and their vulnerable communities from imminent and irreparable harm… if there is no national security concern with the information provided.”

2012:A report by Dr. Christopher I. Li published in the American Association for Cancer Research Journalin February 2012, revealed that Depo Provera increases breast cancer risk by 120 percent (2.2 fold). Kwame Fosu advocated to bring awareness to this research and have it included in FDA warnings. However, he was again attacked by detractors that the cancer research was “inconclusive”—a word routinely used to rationalize the marketing of harmful LACs to Africans, and to silence concerns expressed by African advocates. UNFPA, WHO and USAID cannot simply cherry-pick and discard genuine scientific research that conflicts with their aggressive and flawed family planning policy goals in Africa: http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/factsheets/cancer_depoprovera_doubles_breast_cancer_risk.pdf

2012:At London family planning summit in July 2012, Melinda Gates launched a multi-billion dollar contraceptive initiative that promotes Sayana Press/Depo Provera as an optimal contraceptive and preferred choice for African women, in spite of HIV/AIDS warnings by her own researcher Dr. Renee Heffron; and breast cancer warning by the American Association for Cancer Research. The summit's goals are implemented by Family Planning 2020, a partnership with Gates Foundation, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Pfizer, PATH (controlled by Gates), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), UK's Department for International Development and others. Countries initially targeted forSayana Press,include Burkina Faso, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda.

2012:In a funding/marketing partnership with Pfizer, Gates Foundation, USAID, PATH (functionally controlled by Bill & Melinda Gates), andBecton-Dickinson (inBuffet's stock portfolio); Depo Provera is repackaged as a “self-inject” contraceptive called Sayana Press, and targeted to villagers in Africa. Pfizer was able to receive approval directly from African governments by concealing fatal side-effects in FDA warnings (Pfizer and partners gain approx. 36 billion a year from DMPA revenue:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gatess-4-billion-foray-in-global-family-planning-2012-05-15/print)

Moreover, Pfizer did not inform African governments that the Uniject delivery system used in “Sayana Press” is NOT approved by FDA as a self-inject contraceptive system. Furthermore, Sayana Press is not sold in the United States, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European nations require strict informed consent and counseling women of cancer, strokes, thrombosis, etc., by certified doctors/nurses, before women are prescribed, injected, implanted, andpermitted to “self-inject”with LACs, after making an informed decision about harm.

Sayana Press is in fact not labeled as a self-inject system; however, it is illegally marketed as such to unsuspecting women in Africa using uncertified NGO/FHI-360 workers, carrying drug satchels, called “community health workers”- CHWs. These CHWs dispense Sayana Press and Depo Provera, drugs restricted in the U.S. with severeFDA Black Box warnings; and,even though CHWs are not doctors or nurses, USAID/Gates/FHI-360 policy instructs CHWs to train “women to administer themselves through self-injection.” This is a crime against African women that someone has to answer for—see paragraph 5 and bottom of page 1: http://www.path.org/publications/files/RH_sayana_press_summary.pdf

No oneshould blame African officials for allowing these dangerous drugs into their countries. Because, senior U.S. Congress Members, veteran DOJ prosecutors and veteran HHS officials were oblivious of the depths of the Pfizer-Gates-USAID partnership and immoralmarketing scheme in Africa, until the Rebecca Project for Justice began to excavate details.This crime against Africans is covered-up at the highest levels of the UN and US government. The US government and institutions should be ethical and moral in their negotiations with Africans. All attempts to silence the Rebecca Project failed.

2013:Israel took extraordinary actions to protect African women in Israel from Depo Provera after human rights advocates at ACRI (Association for Civil Rights in Israel) fought to protect the reproductive health of African women. ACRI's advocacy was funded by Shira Saperstein of the Moriah Fund. In January 2013, Israel ordered the ban of Depo Provera and then followed up with strict informed consent laws ensuring that every African woman is counseled in her native language of HIV, Cancer, and other serious risks and signs an informed consent form before being injected with Depo Provera. Israel has adequate hospitals and cancer experts to combat disease: http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/israel-news/israels-health-ministry-orders-halt-injectable-contraception-ethiopian-women

And see ACRI: http://www.acri.org.il/en/2013/01/29/ethiopian-contraceptive-prescriptions/.

2013:David Forman, head of World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer's (IARC) Section of Cancer Information, the group that compiles the global cancer data, 'Breast cancer is also a leading cause of cancer death in the less developed countries of the world,' see: http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2013/pdfs/pr223_E.pdf

Breast cancer is progesterone-receptor-positive (PR+) if it has progesterone receptors. This means that the cancer cells may receive signals from progesterone that could promote their growth.

Breast cancer is called estrogen-receptor-positive (or ER+) if it has receptors for estrogen. This suggests that the cancer cells, like normal breast cells, may receive signals from estrogen that could promote their growth.

Approximately, two out of every three breast cancers test positive for hormone receptors. Therefore, even though we do not know all the causes of breast cancer, we certainly know that the reason long-term contraceptives concentrated with progesterone, such as Depo Provera, NET-EN, Norplant, and Sayana Press, are not available or severely restricted in Europe—is because of the high risk of breast cancer, thrombosis (blood clots that lead to stroke) and other fatal diseases. Melinda Gates, UNFPA, WHO, IPPF and USAID should respect African women, and have the same serious health concerns for them, becauseDepo Provera increases the risk of breast cancer by 120 percent[xi].

2015:After several petitions sent to the DOJ, and FDA/HHS by Kwame Fosu, Rebecca Project for Justice, demanding an investigation and prosecution of Pfizer and U.S. researchers for concealing lethal side-effects; the FDA/HHS revised Depo Provera's label to include breast cancer warnings and Dr. Christopher I. Li research published in the American Association for Cancer Research Journalthat reveals a significant increase in breast cancer by 120%.But, in a political decision to protect USAID & Melinda Gates' flawed Depo Provera FP 2020 partnership, the FDA declined to include Dr. Renee Heffron's HIV/AIDS research funded by Gates & NIH, and several other HIV research studiesthat demonstrate an increased risk of HIV/AIDS from Depo Provera (Rajiv Shah, head of USAID was previously employed by Melinda Gates). Pfizer has still failed to send a formal letter to African health officials to inform them about the serious FDA warnings: For cancer research see FDA link below, page 4 – line 7, with citation on page 17 – line 1 : http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2015/020246s053lbl.pdf

2015:Lancet, a leading medical journal, published another Depo Provera (DMPA) report, this time stating that Depo Provera increases HIV risk by 40 percent. Depo Provera is the Melinda Gates' contraceptive of choice for Black women in her Family Planning 2020 agenda (FP2020).

ReadTIME Magazinearticle here: http://time.com/3660564/contraceptives-hiv-risk/ and the Lancet research at: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(14)71052-7/fulltext

A NOTE ABOUT AFRICA'S POPULATION DENSITY COMPARED TO EUROPE

The approximate Population Density of People per km² in Africa is 31 and Europe (EU) is 116. With the exception of Rwanda, crowded capital cities in Africa does not mean a country is “over populated” (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.DNST). People crowd into capital cities, because there are no jobs or economic development elsewhere in rural areas. Denmark, for example, has a population density four to thirty times higher than some African countries.Even with excellent medical care, Denmark does not actively administer Depo Provera, NET-EN, Norplant, and Sayana Press to women.Yet, Denmark is a sponsor of UNFPA and IPPF at the U.N. promoting these lethal drugs to Africans.

Here is a small comparison of Depo Provera&Sayana Pressinjectable contraceptive use in Europe, U.S. and Africa: Denmark- negligible, France- negligible, Italy- negligible, Germany≈2%, Sweden≈2%, U.K.≈5% & U.S.≈5% (mostly Blacks & Hispanics injected); Nigeria 22%; South Sudan 24%; Guinea 23%; Burkina Faso 36%; Ghana 37%, Senegal 38.5%; Gambia 48%; Sierra Leone 48%; Uganda 51%, Burundi 57%, South Africa 53%; Liberia 58%, Malawi 59%, Madagascar 61%, and Ethiopia is the highest with 75% (Africa Data retrieved from: Melinda Gates FP2020 Progress Report 2013-2014-- Page 170 to 174 has list of targeted “developing countries”, download at :http://progress.familyplanning2020.org/executive-summary).

[Sudan's data, for example, is blanked out on the Gates FP 2020 list. However, 2011 research reveals a minimum of 18% of injectables inKassala, Sudan, which only represents the eastern region of Sudan. Women in Kassala are given little or no information about lethal side-effects of LACs, because NGO's acting on behalf of the U.N. and western governments conceal harm from Sudanese officials. For Kassala research see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3056802/]

With the exception of South Africa, when a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in sub Saharan Africa, she will most likely die. However, in Europe and in America with the highest rates of breast cancer, women have a survival rate of 80% to 98% due to early detection and excellent medical care.

Nearly all African countries are witnessing a significant increase in breast cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer death in developing countries[xii]. However, scores of African countries do not have adequate medical care to combat diseases afflicting vulnerable populations.

Africancountriesmust immediately begin the process of banning LACs:Depo Provera, Norplant, Sayana Press and NET-EN, because they are lethal; and due to the fact that there is a dearth of breast cancer medical facilities, oncologists, and other health specialists to detect, monitor, and combat breast cancer, thrombosis, heart disease, and other fatal diseases caused or exacerbated by LACs.

The U.S. Congress must also end funding for LACs to protect African women. It is time to retirethe exaggerated concept of “unmet need”—a dehumanizing euphemism that rationalizes the unethical targeting and inhumane depopulation of Africans with Depo Provera, Norplant, Sayana Press and NET-EN—harmful contraceptives not actively promotedto Caucasian women in America and Europe.

Thank you and please feel free to contact us if you have comments and questions about this valiant lifesaving cause for African women.

REFERENCES
Elizabeth Wong (ACLU, Assoc. Director). A Shameful History: Eugenics in Virginia. American Civil Liberties Union (Jan 2013): https://acluva.org/10898/a-shameful-history-eugenics-in-virginia/

[ii] Tiahrt Amendment for Voluntary Family Planning, H.Amdt.904, (amending Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1999, H.R. 4569), 105th Cong. (1999).

[iii]Sarah Johnson, Christine Pion, and Victoria Jennings, Current methods and attitudes of women towards contraception in Europe and America, Reproductive Health Journal (2013)

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content/10/1/7. Use of injectables and implants in Europe is on average less than 3 percent.

[iv]Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices(Germany): Pfizer licensed Norplant to German corporation Bayer to be shipped to Africa. However, Germany has not approved Norplant to be marketed to German women, and, Germany does not does not actively promote Depo Provera, NET-EN and Sayana Press for sale to German women: http://www.bfarm.de/EN/Drugs/_node.html. Also see, Paul Ehrlich Institute (Germany): http://www.pei.de/DE/home/de-node.html. Use of injectables and implants in Europe is on average less than 3 percent.

[v]Norwegian Medicines Agency: Norway does not actively promote Norplant, NET-EN, and Sayana Press, for sale to Norwegian women. Depo Provera is approved but rarely used by Norwegian women, and only used with signed informed consent after a comprehensive medical examination. Yet, Norway is a leading U.N. sponsor of UNFPA and IPPF events aggressively promoting these lethal drugs to Africans as optimal contraception: http://www.legemiddelverket.no/English/Sider/default.aspx. Use of injectables and implants in Europe is on average less than 3 percent.

[vi]Danish Health and Medicines Authority: Denmark does not actively promote Depo Provera, Norplant, NET-EN, and Sayana Press for sale to Danish women. Yet, Denmark is a leading U.N. sponsor of UNFPA and IPPF events aggressively promoting these lethal drugs to Africans as optimal contraception: http://sundhedsstyrelsen.dk/en/medicines/find-medicines. Use of injectables and implants in Europe is on average less than 3 percent.

[vii]Ibid.Current methods and attitudes of women towards contraception in Europe and America (2013).

[viii]Jokin de Iralaa,b, Alfonso Osoriob,c, Silvia Carlosa,b, Cristina Lopez-del Burgoa, Choice of birth control methods among European women and the role of partners and providers(2011). Retrieved from National Center for Biotechnology Information, NIH: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22078183

[ix]Goodman, Amy, The Case Against Depo-Provera, Multinational Monitor FEBRUARY/MARCH, 1985, VOL 6, NUM 2 & amp;3

[x]Betsy Hartmann, Aline Gubrium, Letter to the Editor: A Contraceptive's Risks, New York Times

[xi] Christopher I. Li, Elisabeth F. Beaber, Mei Tzu Chen Tang, Peggy L. Porter, Janet R. Daling, and Kathleen E. Malone: Effect of Depo-Medroxy-Progesterone Acetate on Breast Cancer Risk among Women 20 to 44 Years of Age (2012). This research indicates a 120 percent increase in breast cancer, and was added to FDA Depo Provera warning label in 2015—see FDA link below, page 4 – line 7, with citation on page 17 – line 1 : http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2015/020246s053lbl.pdf

Download breast cancer research at: http://www.rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/factsheets/cancer_depoprovera_doubles_breast_cancer_risk.pdf

[xii]David Forman, World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), 14.1 million new cases in 2012: Marked increase in breast cancers must be addressed. (December 12, 2013). Retrieved from: http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2013/pdfs/pr223_E.pdf

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The Rebecca Project for Justice. March 31, 2015