ARTICLES
April 1999 ARTICLESLETTERS
Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
The Fewer, The Better
MEXFAM SEEKS TO REDUCE LATINO POPULATION
By Sandra Guzman
While the old battles over abortion continue to rage on the streets and in the courtrooms of America, a new, quieter battle is playing out in the Third World and in large metropolitan areas of America. This new battle centers around population control. Planned Parenthood now leads the pack in the race to control the people of the Third World. This is apparent when one reviews the various countries that Planned Parenthood considers models of success. One of their most successful outreaches is in predominately Catholic Mexico.
In 1965, Planned Parenthood formed the Mexican Family Planning Association in order to provide "state of the art services in family planning...preferably to the most vulnerable populations in Mexico: the young and the poor." According to Mexfam's own data, in 1998, Mexfam implemented 174 projects in 22 states of Mexico. In addition, Mexfam, with Planned Parenthood, has established numerous joint ventures along the U.S. Mexican border.
Mexfam is unabashed in its strategic objectives: "Respond to the unmet need for family planning among the poor population of Mexico, thereby contributing to a better demographic and ecological balance in the world". Mexfam is unabashedly involved in controlling the Mexican people's decisions on how many children they should have and when they should have children. With programs targeting the most vulnerable, Mexfam has been very successful in reducing the Mexican population. Mexfam states that Mexico desperately needs a Family Planning Association because Mexico's population is "approaching 100 million." Mexfam elaborates on the needs for its services, "Such a large population is bound to exert an extraordinary pressure on the limited natural resources of the country and of the world as a whole."
Funding for these projects comes primarily from American foundations such as the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Turner Foundation. One interesting contributor to Mexfam is the Jesuit order under the auspices of the Georgetown University School of Medicine's Institute for Reproductive Health.
The Institute for Reproductive Health's website states that the Institute is assisting people by "providing technical resources...to organizations around the world, primarily in developing countries. The institute's work empowers people to make informed appropriate reproductive health and family planning decisions." Most of the website is devoted to the Institute's promotion of Natural Family Planning. The Mission contacted the Institute's director, Dr. Victoria Jennings for comment as to why the Georgetown Institute for Reproductive Health would fund a population control group such as Mexfam. Dr. Jennings' technical assistant, Jeannette Cachan, told the Mission, "We really don't exactly fund Mexfam, we have given them technical support in the area of Natural Family Planning." Cachan seemed shocked that Mexfam would list the Institute as a supporter along with Planned Parenthood. She stressed that the Institute has always been adamant about only assisting Mexfam with NFP, and other natural methods of birth regulation.
Mexico is not the only place where Planned Parenthood tries to impose its population control tactics on the Mexican people. The East Los Angeles branch of Planned Parenthood has Hispanic outreach called "Promotoras Communitarias". The goal of the Promotoras is to "empower Latinas with knowledge about family planning and reproductive health and help them to develop communication and leadership skills to enable them to teach other women in their neighborhoods." Women will be recruited through Promotoras, community centers, churches and housing projects to participate in a training made up of eight weekly three-hour meetings." Upon completion of the training, which includes the advocacy of Planned Parenthood's abortion clinic located on Marengo Street, where abortions up to 20 weeks of age are performed, a woman is paid $50 for her efforts. Additionally a woman is paid $25 for each presentation she gives promoting the Promotoras program.
Planned Parenthood is unabashed in their choice of locations where they recruit Latinas. Approximately two years ago, one woman (who refused to be named for this story), was aghast when she learned that Planned Parenthood had given a presentation on the Promotoras' program at Our Lady of the Rosary of Talpa Catholic Church in East Los Angeles. According to this woman, Melinda Cordero, who is the coordinator for the Promotoras program conducted a workshop for the Youth Ministries group on the Promotoras. Concerned that Planned Parenthood was using the local parish to promote abortion and sterilization, she contacted the pastor, Father Helios, regarding the presentation. Frustrated with Father Helios' apparent sympathy with the program, she wrote a letter to Cardinal Mahony, which went unanswered.
In spite of the Georgetown's Institute for Reproductive Health's purported surprise at their being named a Mexfam supporter and statement that there would be a correction, a review of the website a month later showes that Mexfam is still listing the Institute as a supporter.
The fact that Georgetown would support Mexfam surprised Steve Mosher, executive director of the Population Research Institute. Mosher told the Mission that Mexfam's policies are "racist". "Mexfam is a creature of the International Planned Parenthood mandate. Its managers are trained by population control groups funded by the United States under the auspices of the United States Agency for International Development".