April 7, 1999

TORONTO, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Fr. Richard Welch, CSSR, JCD, President of Human Life International (HLI), speaking at a news conference in Toronto to open Human Life International's 18th World Conference on Love, Life and the Family, charged the governments of Canada and the United States with promoting "contraceptive imperialism" in developing nations.
Father Welch accused the governments of western nations with "promoting the myth of a population crisis" then using taxpayer money to finance the exportation of contraceptives and population control programs to developing nations. "This line of thinking is a prime feature of US and Canadian foreign policy," Welch said.

Fr. Welch explained that this approach is based on a flawed premise "because there is no overpopulation crisis anywhere in the world." He asserted "to the contrary, western contraception programs being exported to the Third World have caused a catastrophic birth dearth in many countries."

"Many developed nations too, such as Germany, Israel, Spain and Denmark, are faced with the dire consequences of zero population growth and are unable to replace a retiring work force," he added. "According to the latest figures from Statistics Canada, the Canadian birth rate has reached its lowest point in recorded history with only 1.6 births per woman of reproductive age. Demographers know that a country's population needs a replacement level of 2.1 to be viable."

Fr. Welch said that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is a major government funder of abortion and population control organizations such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada. "In one five year period alone, 1989-94, CIDA gave IPPF $US 143 Million. This shocking fact is unknown to most Canadians, whom polls show want their overseas aid assistance applied to medicines, food and legitimate development," the pro-family leader stated.

He also charged that contraceptives are "the stepping stone for abortion" and that many contraceptives are abortifacients, meaning that they actually cause an abortion to take place. He noted that at the recent UN Cairo +5 meetings in New York, the World Health Organization was promoting "emergency contraception," while denying the scientifically documented abortion -- causing nature of such chemical birth control methods.

"Contraceptives destroy not only the procreative aspect of marriage, but the marriage itself," he stated, adding that the use of contraceptives often leads to divorce because "when couples do not live their married lives open to the possibility of procreation, then the marriage itself runs the risk of not surviving."

"The promotion of contraceptives is criminal when one considers the harmful effects on women," Fr. Welch said, noting that a number of birth control drugs and devices are tested on women in the developing world before their sale in the US and Canada. He predicted that the contraceptive industry would eventually come under public attack and become the target for lawsuits, in much the same way as the tobacco industry has in recent years.

"In Canada there are well over 100,000 abortions annually. In the United States surgical abortion alone kills a child every 23 seconds. But the American fatalities represent only about 2 % of the global death rate. It is not possible to obtain accurate statistics for surgical abortion locally or globally because studies reveal that total abortion figures are very seldom reported to provincial or federal agencies. Hence accurate statistics are not available; the best one can do is extrapolate and estimate," Fr. Welch emphasized.

HLI's President noted too that published statistics on the abortion death toll tell only part of the story because they are confined to surgical abortions and don't take into account the deaths caused by non-surgical abortions, which are caused by contraceptive drugs and devices such as the Pill, Norplant, and Depo-Provera, most of which have the potential to cause chemical abortions. "It is these chemicals and devices which many women in developing nations are coerced into using by western governments and non- governmental agencies," he stated.

"These powerful hormones do several things in a woman's body. Often they do have a contraceptive effect by preventing ovulation or the sperm from reaching the ovum. But other times they work after fertilization -- after a new human life has begun -- by making the lining of the uterus hostile to new life and preventing implantation in the womb. The baby is expelled without the mother ever knowing she had conceived. This is the abortifacient nature of contraception," Fr. Welch asserted.

"It is impossible to know how many women are using these potent hormonal preparations, and it is hard to know how often these drugs and devices cause silent abortions," the pro-life group's leader explained. "Reliable estimates are that non-surgical abortion is three to ten times more common than surgical abortion. A realistic estimate of the number of children killed by abortion worldwide is between 150 million and 500 million. That means there are actually between 300 and 1000 abortions per minute globally. By contrast, there are only 120 million births each year throughout the world," Fr. Welch added.

Fr. Welch strongly emphasized that "Human Life International, with its network of branches and affiliates serving 89 countries throughout the world, is dedicated to saving babies of all races, creeds and nationalities. HLI will continue to tell the truth that the world ignores: that abortion always kills and sometimes 'contraceptives' do too."

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