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additional Articles google - Ethiopian Jewish women Given Depo-Provera
Depo-Provera (medroxyprogesterone acetate injectable suspension)
Special exclusive to PFLI E-News by Randy Engel
· Infants who had been exposed to Depo-Provera during pregnancy had a higher risk of low birth weight and an 80% greater-than-usual chance of dying in the first year of life.
·
While it has long been known
that Depo-Provera causes bone loss it has recently been discovered that
the osteoporotic effects of the injection grow worse the longer
Depo-Provera is administered, may remain long after the injections are
stopped, and may be irreversible.
·
This drug may rarely cause
blood clots.
·
Primate studies of
medroxyprogesterone have suggested that it may increase the risk of
transmission of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), an animal model of
HIV.
·
Young women who have taken
the shot in the last four years are more than twice as likely to develop
breast cancer.
·
Children born to women on
Depo-Provera are more likely to have webbed toes and fingers, and
chromosomal anomalies.
·
The boys are twice as likely
to have genital deformities, and the baby girls are more likely to suffer
masculinizing effects of the drug’s chemicals, causing genital
abnormalities.
·
In 2010, certain members of
the feminist movement accused Israel
Ethiopian birth control?
By JPOST
EDITORIAL
12/10/2012
Ethiopian Jews
arrive in Israel Photo: Moshe Shai
A program aired on Israel Educational Television
on Sunday revealed that Ethiopian Jewish women awaiting aliya were given
long-lasting birth-control while in transit camps. According to the
report, the clinics were run by the Joint Distribution Committee and
The drug, administered every 12 weeks, is known as
Depo-Provera, a hormonal, injectable contraceptive known as the
“birth-control shot.” Although it has existed for around 30 years, it is
not widely used. Only about five percent of women elect to use this method
of birth control in the
Yet it appears that
it was chosen as an easy and effective choice for women in
The central
question this raises is to what degree the women were provided with an
informed choice. Also, was the decision to administer this shot tinged
with racism and paternalism? One Ethiopian woman claimed, in an interview
with Haaretz: “We said we
won’t have the shot. They told us, if you don’t, you won’t go to
The Joint responded, “We do not advise them to have small
families. It is a matter of personal choice.... The claims by the women,
according to which refusal to have the injection would bar them from
medical care and economic aid and threaten their chances to immigrate to
But if those
administering the shot were not involved in immigration, this doesn’t mean
that the mostly poor, vulnerable and sometimes illiterate women were not
made to feel that they had little choice in the matter.
Were the
women provided, for instance, with the same information that an Israeli
woman would expect to receive from her health-care professional? Were they
told that not only would the shot prevent pregnancy for three months, but
that it is linked to weight gain?
The Journal of Medical Ethics
published a report addressing this issue in 1984, in which the authors
noted, “Depo-Provera has been damned as an example of Malthusian
enthusiasts foisting unsolicited and questionable therapies on other
people hence creating unwarranted risks especially for the poor and those
least able to understand the benefit/ risk
considerations.”
Travel writer Frosty Woolridge
reported that in
In 2008, according
to an article in The
National, Rachel Mangoli – who ran a day-care center for
Ethiopian children in Bnei Brak – was told by a family clinic that it had
been told to provide Ethiopian women with the long-term birth control
vaccination.
Feminist organization Woman to Woman reported in 2010
that 57 percent of women receiving Depo-Provera in
Unanswered questions remain and it is imperative that
the organizations involved in the aliya of Ethiopian Jews – including the
North American Conference on Ethiopian Jews, the Joint, the Health
Ministry and the Jewish Agency – provide clear answers.
It isn’t
enough to shirk responsibility and claim that the women are not telling
the truth. What would motivate these women, after having made aliya, to
lie? If, as they say, they felt pressured to take a birth-control shot
that they did not fully understand the ramifications of, and they were
then encouraged to keep taking it in Israel, a system should now be put in
place to make sure that women in their circumstances receive the same
information and are presented with the same choices as immigrants from
North America, haredi women or Arab women in Israel.
Attempts to
limit population growth in places such as
The right to make one’s own family-planning decisions is
essential in a free society. All of those involved in Ethiopian aliya must
now ensure that this right remains at the forefront of any administration
of birth-control methods.