USAID Needs to Warn Women of the Dangers of Depo-Provera

It’s the Law, Yet Family Planners Routinely Fail to Provide Women with even Basic Information

By Steven W. Mosher and Jonathan Abbamonte

Population Research Institute 

Despite mounting evidence of serious side effects associated with the use of injectable contraceptives, international aid programs continue to indiscriminately distribute Depo-Provera under various brand names worldwide.

Indeed, a coalition of family planning partners including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health), and others are seeking to inject even more vulnerable women in developing countries with risky injectable contraceptives.

Like the injectable contraceptives that preceded it, the new one-time use injectable contraceptive—called Sayana Press—is intended to be administered by an unlicensed “community health worker” with minimal training, or even by women themselves.

True to form, the training materials and job aids used in Sayana Press acceptability studies fail to provide complete information on the possible side effects of the drug. This could constitute a violation of the Tiahrt Amendment which guarantees “informed consent.”

Read more at Population Research Institute using this link