CRS and Funding for Contraception-Pushers

Since February, the Lepanto Institute has published a series of articles, exposing the financial partnerships formed by Catholic Relief Services, through grants provided by the Federal government.  The fact of the matter is that CRS would not have any reason to partner with any of these organizations were it not for the fact that the federal government makes such partnerships a requirement for obtaining these grants.  Our first article revisited funding CRS has funneled to Population Services International, an organization that was created by a pornographer for the specific purpose of population control.  Our next article focused on CRS’s funds for a condom-distributing organization called Africare.  We then illustrated the odd disconnect between a decision made by the Archbishop of St. Louis to distance the Archdiocese away from the Girl Scouts because of its relationship with OXFAM … and Catholic Relief Services’ continued funding for OXFAM, where there is no public rebuke by any bishop.  Our last article on this matter discussed how CRS introduced sheep to wolves through its work with CARE International, the Adventist Relief Agency, and ACDI/VOCA.

We’re working on profiling the rest of the bad actors receiving pass-through funding from Catholic Relief Services and will have a complete list finished soon.  In the mean time, this article will focus on two more contraception-pushing groups that CRS is working with, hand-in-glove.

ChildFund International

For fiscal year 2014, Catholic Relief Services provided $564,424 to ChildFund International, an organization that distributes abortifacient, injectable contraception and condoms.

According to a 2011 document co-authored by USAID, FHI 360, Progress in Family Planning, and ChildFund International, Childfund approached FHI 360 to ask about collaborating on a project to start distributing injectable contraception called, “Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate” (DMPA), which is marketed under the brand name “Depo-Provera.”  Page 8 of the document, which is titled, “Expanding Community Based Access to Injectable Contraception,” says:

In November 2008, ChildFund Zambia asked FHI 360 (formerly named Family Health International)to collaborate on a pilot study to introduce injectable contraceptives to its existing CBD (community based distribution) program.

In 2009, ChildFund and FHI 360 began training local community based distributors in the method of injecting the contraceptive, disposal of the syringes, and counseling women on possible side-effects.  By February of 2010, CBDs were administering DMPA unsupervised.

In 2011, a pro-abortion, contraception promoting organization called Women Deliver produced a list of what it calls the “top 50 inspiring ideas and solutions that deliver for girls and women.”  Listed at number 9, Women Deliver applauded ChildFund International for “targeted pilot programs for community-based distribution of specific interventions, such as misoprostol,” which is an abortion-inducing drug.

For additional details on Childfund International, please read the full report on this organization here.

D-Tree International

For fiscal year 2014, CRS provided $106,184 to D-Tree International.  D-Tree International was founded by a strident advocate for the wide-spread use of contraception among the poor in the developing world.  To that specific end and under its founder’s direction, D-Tree created a mobile phone application that increases the use and distribution of artificial contraception.

In 2010, D-Tree International entered into a formal partnership with Pathfinder International in order to create an electronic family planning application (eFP) in Tanzania.  According to this brief overview of the program, created by African Strategies for Health:

Community-based Family Planning is a fundamental approach to increase access to Family Planning services. In order to strengthen community-based family planning services, D-tree, in collaboration with FHI 360 and Pathfinder International, developed and is implementing an open-source mobile phone-based family planning application. The electronic family planning (e-FP) application is expected to improve counseling on FP, and hence increase access to and the uptake of family planning methods.

The image on the right from the brief overview is an example of what the application looks like and what it recommends.  As can be seen in the image, all forms of artificial contraception are indicated, including abortifacients and even surgical sterilization.

According to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, funders for this project, 95% of the clients reached through the 6,092 clients reached by this program maintained their use of some form of contraception.

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For additional information on D-Tree International, and to see how its founder and president, Marc Miller, has committed himself and his organization to the spread of contraception world-wide, please read the full report on this organization here.

Conclusion

It’s inconceivable that any Catholic who loves purity, innocence, chastity, and children would even think to provide funding to organizations that not only work against, but hate these very foundational aspects of our Faith.  And yet, CRS will make every excuse imaginable as to why it has to work with and provide funding to organizations such as these.  CRS will even offer the proportionalist argument that working with and funding these organizations “saves lives.”  Maybe they do … but at what cost?  Is CRS so blinded by its addiction to government funds that it is willing to work with and fund organizations that send souls to Hell, just so it can get its piece of the federal pie?  Does CRS place a partial and distorted understanding of the corporal works of charity above the salvation of souls?

Pray for the folks who work at CRS.  Until they place the value of souls above their bottom line, they’re just another NGO.