Contraceptive Dumping – A Horrendous Practice

I highly recommend this hard-hitting article about substandard birth control that the U. S. buys wholesale to sell to Third World countries. This is called “contraceptive dumping”. The birth control includes “unsafe IUDs, dangerous high-estrogen birth control pills and, most recently, Depo-Provera — an injectable contraceptive not approved for American use.” Women in Third World countries are dying from these contraceptives.

The article focuses on three types of birth control – the Dalkon Shield IUD, high-dose birth control pills, and Depo-Provera. The Dalkon Shield IUD, for instance, was banned in the U. S. in 1975. It has caused “pelvic inflammatory disease (an infection of the uterus that can require weeks of bed rest and antibiotic treatment), septicemia (blood poisoning), pregnancies resulting in spontaneous abortions, ectopic (tubal) pregnancies and perforations of the uterus. In a number of cases, the damage was so severe as to require a hysterectomy.” Despite these serious problems, the Shield was shipped overseas. All paid for by the U. S. government.

Women have been protesting the use of contraceptive dumps. This includes women in developed countries as well as the Third World women who are the targets of the dumps. Women around the world have been working together to put a stop to this practice. U. S. women, for instance, have access to information about specific companies that manufacture birth control that women in Third World countries do not have access to. Part of the means of stopping contraceptive dumping includes getting valuable information into the hands of Third World women so that they are informed, and may protect themselves.

It is very important that women around the world have access to adequate and safe birth control. Unsafe birth control is being shipping around the world to Third World countries as a means of population control that scarily reminds one of eugenics. The U. S. has a double standard regarding birth control. Pharamacists have refused to dispense legal birth control (such as birth control pills and emergency contraception) based on religious “conscience clauses”, yet the U. S. ships dangerous birth control overseas in order to make a profit. Women in developed countries are encouraged to bring more babies into the world, especially since birth rates in developed countries have been dropping for years. On the other hand, women in Third World countries are given unsafe birth control in order to keep population rates down. The political ramifications are obvious.

by Elizabeth Black

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