New “Franchises” Foist Abortion and Sterilization on Poor Women
The Population Research Institute has posted an eye-opening article about the spread of “franchises” using slick marketing tools to sell abortions and sterilizations to women in India and other developing countries:
Franchising Abortion and Sterilization: Big Porn, Big Pharma, Big Government and NGOs are partnering to make abortion and sterilization salable in India
By Celeste McGovern and Steven Mosher
Think of franchises, and McDonald’s or Starbucks springs to mind. But how about franchising clinics that do abortions and sterilizations? The population control movement has thought of this too. In the developing world, so-called “reproductive health clinics” are spreading like fast food chains in America through a network of organizations that want abortion and birth control drugs as readily available as a slurpee at 7 Eleven.
With their slick marketing and eye-catching logos, these population control franchises are definitely not home-grown. They are not run by local private entrepreneurs, or by charities scraping by on donation budgets. They are global concerns, backed by a potent combination of Big Government, Big Pharma, Big Porn and Big Money. And they all have a Big Population Control Agenda.
The movement is called “social franchising,” and the idea behind it that you sell “behavior change” the way you sell Coca Cola or Apple computers. It’s a little like anti-smoking or get-out-and-vote campaigns, except it is selling the notion that babies are nuisances that one is better off without.
Governments in populous developing nations like India have long carried out crude and cruel campaigns that, for example, paid people to bring in women for sterilization. Now, however, they have signed onto sophisticated social marketing campaigns to “create demand” for the Western population control agenda, helping to underwrite anti-child advertisements in the mass media under the guise of promoting maternal health.
As the authors point out, these franchises are run by population control advocates who have no problem partnering with governments that trample on the rights and well-being of women:
Sterilization is not on PSI’s menu in India, claimed Marjara. It is a touchy subject there, where men and women have been sterilized in assembly-line fashion over the years. So it’s hardly surprising that PSI might want to distance itself from the practice. But you can hardly say they are taking an active stand against it. For starters, they have no problem partnering with the governments that run the camps. “PSI is a public partnership,” said Marjara. “We have very strong linkages with the government.” Indeed.
What’s more, Marjara explained that the clinics PSI operates are actually “fractional franchisees”. “PSI does not own the clinics,” he explained.“We have no administrative control over the network.” In reality, this means that while PSI might be responsible for quality training and assurance (as it is called), this oversight only applies to the services to which it chooses to apply it. If one of its providers does sterilizations at the clinic, in addition to abortions and IUD insertions, PSI disclaims responsibility. Even though it is underwriting the clinic with funds from American taxpayers.
This is a win-win situation for PSI and the franchisee. PSI can claim to have nothing to do with coerced sterilizations (or other violations of human rights), while the clinics can operate without much oversight and with generous subsidies from unsuspecting taxpayers. The big losers are the women who get whack-and-hack tubal ligations that a North American veterinarian wouldn’t do to a dog.
There’s more, so be sure to read the whole thing. You can also find more information at the links below.
Learn More:
“Unmet Need” and Pushing Contraceptives on Women in the Developing World
She Shouldn’t Have to Choose Between Barrenness and Death
Overpopulation? Debunking the Myths
