NGO promoting abortion pills and legalization of abortion in Latin America

Dec 17, 2007 / 10:31 am

The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Gynuity, which promotes chemical abortion worldwide, has published a new paper on its website aimed to promote widespread access to abortion and undermine national laws against it in Latin America.

Janet Ramos Barrientos of the Legal Committee of the Latin American Alliance for the Family told CNA that Gynuity has published on its website the document “Choices for Introduction of Medical Abortion in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru,” in which it describes how to cover up the crime of abortion.  The document indicates that “non-vaginal routes may be preferred by some women and will decrease the possibility of discovery of the tablets if the abortion is clandestine.”

According to Ramos, the document aims to promote the “consumption of a drug that begins the abortion process in order to justify finishing it later as an incomplete abortion. The NGO Gynuity has been in charge of this worldwide strategy since 2003.  Its president, Dr. Beverly Winikoff, worked for 25 years as Director of Reproductive Health at the Population Council.”

Ramos told CNA that, the project for introducing abortion in these four countries was developed by Gynuity at the request of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the largest promoter of abortion in the world.

“Although the first paragraph says the document aims ‘to identify the best strategies for introducing medical abortion technology and increasing access throughout the region to the fullest extent allowed by the law,’ in the rest of the document there is no respect shown for current law.  It’s practically a manual on how to ridicule the law,” Ramos said.

“In relation to the drug they recommend using for initiating an abortion, they know perfectly well that it is only allowed for specific purposes and belongs to a field of medicine distinct from gynecology.   They analyze the willingness in these four countries, detailing brand names and even prices.  An important part of this analysis is pointing out how his drug can be obtained in these countries without a prescription, using ‘informal channels’,” Ramos stressed.

He also noted that Gynuity simplifies the risks of the drug. “The risks, side effects and counter indications of the drug are so many that the FDA has not authorized its use in gynecology. For Gynuity, on the other hand, with this drug a woman can deal with the matter at home,” Ramos said.

“Both Gynuity and its sponsor, the IPPF, do not hide their desire to see abortion legal in Latin America very soon, since they point out that this ‘counseling service’ for chemical abortions should be the option as long as a surgical abortion service is not implemented in the same public health centers,” Ramos said in conclusion.