RU 486 Linked to Population Control
Beyond ZPG in Indonesia and 60+ Other World Nations
India's Child Policy
INDIA'S CHILD POLICY Since the widespread use of ultrasound, about 10 million female fetuses may have been selectively aborted following ultrasound results in India over the last 20 years. In India's patriarchal society, daughters are regarded as a "liability," as "she will belong to the family of her future husband," the recent survey reports. A 1997 survey discovered that when the two oldest children are daughters, there were 719 girls for every 1000 boys for the third child. When the eldest or second child is a boy, the ratios for later children are close to 50-50. [NewScientist.com, 1-9-06; Eagle Forum 4 August 2006]
RU-486 LINKED TO POPULATION CONTROL IN LETTER FOUND IN CLINTON FILES. [While an item concerning this memo was posted earlier, the relationship to RU486 is new.] A pro-life organization has uncovered a letter written by a prominent member of the abortion lobby that urged the Clinton administration to use surgical and chemical abortion as a tool to "eliminate the barely educated, unhealthy and poor segment of the country."
The letter, written by Ron Weddington, whose wife served as an attorney for the abortion side in the Roe v. Wade case, was stored among papers at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, AR.
Judical Watch, a pro-life legal organization, says the letter was used to gain FDA approval for RU-486 and described it as being "chronologically and philosophically, the foundation document for the Clinton RU-486 files."
In the letter, dated Jan. 6, 1992, Weddington told then president-elect Clinton that programs to assist the poor would not be effective for years to come. "The problem is that their numbers are not only replaced but increased by the birth of millions of babies to people who can't afford to have babies," he wrote. "There, I've said it. It's what we all know is true but we only whisper it, because as liberals who believe in individual rights, we view any program which might treat the disadvantaged differently as discriminatory, mean spirited and . . . well . . . so Republican."
Weddington said the government would have to provide not only condoms and contraceptives but also "vasectomies, tubal ligations, and abortions . . . RU-486 and conventional abortions." He accused the military and business owners of encouraging more births in order to meet their own needs for "cannon fodder," and "cheap labor."
"Our survival depends upon our developing a population where everyone contributes," the letter concluded. "We don't need more cannon fodder. We don't need more cheap labor. We don't need more poor babies."
Elliot Institute director Dr. David Reardon said that population control advocates have long seen RU-486 as a tool for controlling the number and "quality" of births, especially in the developing world.
He points out that, while RU-486 is not safer, more private, or less expensive than surgical abortions when it is properly administered, it can be taken into "with relative ease" into developing countries, even when abortion is not legally available.
"Once it is brought into developing countries, RU-486 can be easily transported and distributed," he said. "To avoid trouble with the law, or the conscience of individual patients, these abortifacient treatments can be disguised under the euphemism of 'menstrual regulation.' And even if questions of safety arise, as they have in the U.S., the deaths and injuries suffered by women can then be blamed on 'oppressive' abortion bans that deny women access to 'safe and legal abortions.' For population control advocates, its a win-win situation."
The papers published by Judicial Watch also highlighted the strategy undertaken by the Clinton Administration to bring RU-486 to U.S. and gain speedy approval by the FDA. Reardon said that those concerned about the health and safety of women should continue to lobby the FDA to withdraw approval for the drug, both out of concern for women's safety and because of the potential for violation of women's rights.
"It's not just pro-lifers who should be concerned about this, but anyone who cares about protecting individual rights and freedom," he said.
Related: "The Hidden Agenda of Population Control Zealots" from The Post-Abortion Review, Issue 5(4), Fall 1997 – www.afterabortion.info/PAR/V5/n4/PopConFunding.htm.
To download the complete Judicial Watch report, including a copy of Weddington's letter, visit www.judicialwatch.org/5769.shtml. [Elliot Institute News, vol.5, no.5, 15July06]
BEYOND ZPG IN INDONESIA. Joining 60-70 other nations, approximately one-third of the nations of the world, Indonesia is experiencing a declining fertility rate as well as illegal abortion. While pro-life, the country has dropped its fertility rate by 65% since 1965. At that time, families averaged 5.6 babies; now they are below replacement fertility levels at only 1.95 children per family. [HLI Special Report]