Ministry of Health promotes contraception in rural areas of Peru

Lima, Peru, Aug 6, 2010 / 20:02 pm

The director of the Population Research Institute’s office for Latin America, Carlos Polo, has harshly criticized the launch of a “national family planning program” for rural areas in the country’s Andean region.

Lucy del Carpio, the coordinator of Peru’s national strategy for sexual and reproductive health, presented the program, which promotes contraception as part of the National Family Planning Campaign targeting rural areas, in the city of Curahuasi.

Speaking to CNA, Carlos Polo said, “Some officials like Lucy del Carpio insist on prioritizing their ‘ideological’ prescriptions and have no idea of the needs of the people.” He also noted that the precise areas being targeted by these policies have the highest infant mortality rates in Peru.

Polo went on to point out that, in those regions, parents often suffer the loss of their children due to insufficient medical care. For the people who live in those areas and who depend on farming for their livelihood, “this is a double tragedy,” he stressed.

“While thousands are suffering from the winter cold in Peru, Lucy del Caprio is handing out contraceptives, which doesn’t surprise me because she has spent many years in government promoting contraception,” Polo said.

“The absolute insensitivity of officials who are committed to ideological agendas promoted by foreign organizations and whose mentality is not to do away with poverty, but to do away with the poor, is simply incomprehensible,” he declared.