WASHINGTON — For years, Peruvian pro-lifers have alleged the U.S. Agency for International Development has been too supportive of feminist organizations trying to legalize abortion in Latin American countries.

And for years the agency's office in Peru has strongly denied the charge.

But now, a video of an event sponsored by the agency in which legal abortion was openly promoted has proved the pro-lifers correct.

The event, financed by the Peru office, took place on Oct. 11 in the northern city of Piura under the title “The Situation of Reproductive Health in Peru.” The gathering included only pro-abortion leaders such as left-wing Congressman Víctor Velarde, who recently introduced Bill 7869, which would legalize abortion despite it being forbidden by the Peruvian Constitution.

Also on hand were Delicia Ferrando, local representative of Pathfinder International, a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization that is one of the largest providers of contraceptives in developing nations; Cecilia Arismendy, a representative in Peru of the U.N. Population Fund; and Jeannie Dador of the feminist organization Daniela Ramos.

All speakers harshly criticized current laws prohibiting abortion.

The video, a copy of which is in the hands of the Population Research Institute, a U.S.-based pro-life organization, shows Ferrando speaking openly against Peruvian pro-life legislation under a large U.S. Agency for International Development logo.

“Abortion is not a medical but a social problem, mainly because of its illegal status, which imposes a heavy burden on women,” Ferrando said.

Susana Chavez of the Feminist Group Flora Tristán praised “the organizers of this gathering” (USAID) because “we cannot be silent and accept what the law says today. Instead, we need to discuss how to make these laws more according to the needs of citizens, and these kinds of events are good for that purpose.”

Velarde explained that Bill 7869 says “the attention to reproductive health in a broad sense includes the attention to people with HIV/AIDS, abortion, infertility treatment and a wide range of quality contraception.”

The bill also says “among the legal barriers to reproductive health are the laws that forbid abortion.”

Complaint Filed

As soon as the participants and content of the event were known, 10 members of the Peruvian Congress wrote to Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, highlighting the clearly pro-abortion sections of Bill 7869 and questioning the agency's support of the event.

“The funding of this conference and of organizations that are pushing for abortion on demand in Peru is a blatant violation of U.S. law,” said Population Research Institute president Steve Mosher.

Mosher cited the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, which forbids funding any organization that promotes coercive abortion or forced sterilization. Under the amendment, from 2001 through 2003 Congress withheld funds from the U.N. Population Fund after a commission proved the organization was involved in forced abortions in China. Ironically, the funds slated for the population fund were redirected to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In 1998, USAID in Peru was involved in controversy after the Population Research Institute brought evidence that the Peruvian government, at that time under the rule of Alberto Fujimori, was using agency money to finance its campaign of forced sterilization of women.

The evidence led to the passing of the Tiahrt Amendment on Oct. 25, 1998, which determined that U.S. funds can only go to “voluntary family-planning” programs.

In a response to John Cusey, an adviser to U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., Richard Martin, USAID/Peru's chief of health services, said the references to abortion were taken only from the “exposition of motives” of the bill, not from the bill itself.

Those references are “based on a review of international documents to summarize current international treaties and resolutions on the subject of reproductive health and human rights,” he said.

Martin also responded that abortion was just one of many issues discussed at the event and that there was a “language misunderstanding” because the Spanish word aborto is not equivalent to the English word abortion since it frequently means miscarriage.

But aborto only means miscarriage when accompanied with the adjective espontáneo (spontaneous) and more frequently the word used in Spanish for miscarriage is pérdida (loss).

Moreover, in the video, Ferrando unequivocally explains the difference between miscarriage and abortion.

Outraged

Luis Santa Maria, who headed the group of Congressmen that sent the letter to Natsios, told the Register he was “simply outraged” by Martin's response and explained that the “exposition of motives” in a bill is not a separate document from the law but “an integral and critical part of it, because it determines the outcome of the law.”

“And abortion is clearly a key part of Velarde's proposed law,” he said.

In a follow-up letter, the congressmen complained that in Martin's response “the exposition of motives was represented as a mere summary of international documents relating to human rights and reproductive health.”

However, they said, Velarde added explicit references to surgical abortion “in an attempt to include surgical abortion in a legal definition of ‘reproductive health.’”

Congressman Héctor Chavez Chuchón, president of the health commission of the Peruvian Congress, also took action, writing U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., on Jan. 31 to express “outrage over the promotion of surgical abortion in Peru by USAID/Peru.” Chavez requested “the immediate intervention of the White House.”

Responding to the mounting evidence, Martin on Feb. 3 wrote again to Cusey, surprisingly presenting Velarde as a “pro-life” Congressman.

Martin wrote to Velarde “suggesting” some changes to his proposed law — changes Velarde immediately included in his new proposal.

“At this point, it is fair to ask how come a U.S. official from an aid organization can be so involved and so influential in Peruvian legislation, especially regarding life and family issues,” said Carlos Polo, an adviser to Congressman Santa María and one of Peru's top investigators of life and family issues. “It is hard not to think that USAID/Peru has a [pro-abortion] agenda and that it handles U.S. taxpayers' money in a very arbitrary manner.”

Finally, Polo told the Register that “all the persons at the event sponsored by USAID are closely associated with the infamous forced-sterilization campaign promoted by Fujimori.”

“It is hard to believe [the agency] maintains a ‘neutrality’ in moral issues,” Polo said, “when they remain associated with the culprits of one of the darkest pages in Peru's history.”

Alejandro Bermúdez writes from Lima, Peru.