U.S. taxpayer money to fund Rwanda campaign to sterilize 700,000 men

[Shin]

KIGALI, February 10, 2011 (LifeSiteNews Excerpts) - The government of Rwanda is planning to launch a sterilization campaign with the goal of rendering 700,000 men, or about one seventh of the male population, infertile within three years.

The government claims that the “family planning” program, which will also invite men to undergo circumcision, is voluntary. “We included circumcision because it allows us get to the men’s reproductive system and in the process we advise them on condom use and vasectomy,” Health Minister Dr. Richard Sezibera told the New Times.

The average Rwandan woman bears five children in her lifetime - a number that has been deemed too high by international population control groups.

Steven W. Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute (PRI), expressed outrage Friday at the program, which is being carried out under the active influence of at least two USAID-funded special interest groups: Intrahealth and Family Health International.

Mosher pointed to the deceptive role of the country’s previous “circumcision campaigns,” touted as a supposed means of preventing HIV/AIDS, in earlier years. In 2008, health officials informed the BBC that such campaigns would be practiced first on “the new born and young men in universities, the army and police.” The BBC reported that while many Rwandans balk at the idea of being sterilized, “correspondents say many in the armed forces will regard it as an order” even though it will be “nominally voluntary.”

“This amounts to coercion,” said Mosher.  “First of all, saying that circumcision ‘protects against AIDS’ is an abuse of semantics, as circumcision doesn’t provide a barrier against anything.  Secondly, if it will be regarded as an order, it doesn’t matter if it actually is one or not.  The men will be circumcised/sterilized because they feel that they must, or risk punitive measures.”

These programs are not being rolled out by the Rwandan government alone, but represent a concerted push by the U.S. government and international health groups.