Congressman evaluating impact of US family planning policy

A US Republican congressman, James Greenwood, is in Kenya on a "a fact-finding mission" to evaluate the impact of the Bush administration's international family planning policy on ordinary Kenyans, said Family Planning International Assistance (FPIA) in a statement. Shortly after coming into office in 2001, President George W. Bush announced that the US would no longer give donor funding to organisations which supported abortion. Greenwood was a leading opponent of the "global gag rule", as the policy was known, and his visit came at a crucial time, said FPIA. "In exchange for US family planning assistance, the 'global gag rule' requires that NGOs sacrifice their right or ability to engage in any public debate or public information effort about abortion, including expressing support for legalisation efforts (though anti-abortion advocacy is not silenced), and withhold information from pregnant women about legal and safe abortion services," the organisation said. It added that "unsafe abortions" in Kenya were a leading cause of death for women of reproductive age. Dr Josiah Owning of the Family Planning Association of Kenya (FPAK) told IRIN that while he did not have precise figures, as many as 50 percent of gynaecological admissions in Kenyan hospitals could be due to injuries - mainly perforations of the uterus and infections due to the use of unsterilised equipment sustained during "backstreet abortions". "We are not in favour of free abortion," he added, "but [favour] post-abortion services, such as emergency medical treatment, counselling, and family planning". He said substantial funding from the US government to the FPAK had been cut, largely because of the organisation's affiliation to the International Division of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which engaged in abortion activities. Since then, the FPAK had been forced to lay off one-quarter of its staff and close three clinics. Similarly, the Marie Stopes Clinic - which conducts abortions - has been forced to retrench 80 employees and close two clinics, a source from the organisation told IRIN. "The levels of maternal mortality have gone up, as have the levels of infant mortality," said the source, explaining that with no other health services or antenatal care available in many rural areas, complications did not get noticed until it was too late. Services such as breast-cancer screening, cervical smear tests, and the provision of birth control medication, are also being cut. "Many rural, marginalised and poor women have nowhere else to go for basic health care," Owning said. "We've been applying to other donors, but so far we have no funding," he said, adding that small user-fees had to be increased in order to pay for the running of the organisation's 19 clinics. Abortion is illegal in Kenya, except in limited circumstances such as the life of the mother being endangered by the pregnancy. The relevant laws are widely flouted. Those campaigning against the US policy say that, ironically, by taking away family planning services, the number of abortions increases. Greenwood will be sharing his findings at the Grand Regency Hotel, Nairobi, on 28 August at 17:30 local time.