Abortion Business Opens Facility in Afghanistan

Kabul, Afghanistan -- A British abortion business said Thursday that it will
officially open one of the first dedicated "reproductive health clinics" in
Afghanistan this weekend.

London-based abortion business Marie Stopes International (MSI) has been
planning to move into the country since early this year, according to Bayard
Roberts, the organization's Afghanistan program manager.

Roberts claims the facility, which has already started operations but will
officially open on Saturday, would remain sensitive to local conditions when
it comes to the issue of abortion.

Abortion was banned under the Taliban, but in January the interim Afghan
government decided to allow abortions until the end of the first trimester
only in situations where the woman's life is in danger.

The only time the facility will get involved in abortion, Roberts claimed, is
if women come to the clinic after receiving a botched abortion. The
all-female facility staff will complete the abortion and provide basic health
care, he said.

MSI and the London-based International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
have come under fire by pro-life groups for providing family planning, birth
control and other reproductive services to Afghan refugees living in camps in
Pakistan. The IPPF is also looking to return to Afghanistan.

Representatives of pro-life groups criticized the decision.

"Leave it to Marie Stopes to finish what the Taliban couldn't -- further
violence against women through abortion," Feminists for Life President Serrin
Foster said. "When women ask for food for their children's empty stomachs,
Marie Stopes is ready to empty their wombs."

"Women in Afghanistan endured one of the worst regimes in history in hopes of
having peace in their country. Now Marie Stopes threatens peace in their
wombs. Since when did Afghan children become the enemy?"

Steve Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, has said that
pro-abortion family planning agencies are aiming to "break down cultural
resistance to abortion ... within the refugee camps."

"Afghan refugee women face a new reign of terror designed to violate their
right to bear children," he said in February.

Nuala Scarisbrick of the British-based Life organization said providing even
limited abortion services in Kabul would be an insult to Afghan culture.

"One of the things that comes across from the reporting on Afghanistan is
that it is a very family-oriented culture and that many people are caught up
in struggles which they have no control over," she said. "This fight (over
abortion) is, I fear, another such struggle."

"The last thing that should be going into the country is an agency whose sole
aim is to provide abortion," she said. "We worry about guns and arms
destabilizing the country, but we should be equally worried about this."

However, Roberts insisted the new facility's operations have received the
approval of the Afghan government and the local community. He noted that the
majority of MSI's work in Kabul will be in the fields of training and
mother-child care.

"There's a huge demand for the most basic health care," he said. "We've
already had 20 to 30 women a day at the clinic, and this is before the
official opening and without any publicity."

The program will be set up with MSI discretionary funds, but Roberts said the
group plans to secure permanent funding.

"Our goal is to set up Marie Stopes Afghanistan," he said. "This is not just
an emergency relief project. Eventually, it will be staffed and run entirely
by local people."

In the longer term, the group plans a series of smaller-scale local clinics
throughout the Afghan capital city and a roving clinic and training facility
to reach more remote areas.

MSI receives money from the British government, the European Union and the
United Nations along with a number of other organizations.

From: The Pro-Life Infonet <infonet@prolifeinfo.org>
Reply-To: Steven Ertelt <infonet@prolifeinfo.org>
Subject: Abortion Business Opens Facility in Afghanistan
Source: Cybercast News Service; August 8, 2002
http://www.hli.org/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/002/110zjrhc.asp