{"id":222330,"date":"2020-04-21T16:13:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T21:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=222330"},"modified":"2020-04-22T15:02:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:02:32","slug":"africa-ventilators-covid-19-abortion-kits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/africa-ventilators-covid-19-abortion-kits\/","title":{"rendered":"While Africa asks for ventilators and PPE during COVID-19, groups send abortion kits instead"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The <\/span>BBC<\/span><\/a>\u00a0recently reported that African countries do not have enough ventilators to treat people affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19). The World Health Organization\u2019s Director for Africa, <\/span>Dr. Matshidiso Moeti<\/span><\/a>, stated that \u201cthe issue of ventilators is one of the biggest challenges that the countries are facing.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Other <\/span>concerns<\/span><\/a> include limited personal protective equipment (PPE) and a lack of access to soap and clean water. Unfortunately, there aren\u2019t enough supplies for every country in the continent, as the <\/span>Associated Press<\/span><\/a> detailed how one major shipment included \u201cmore than 400 ventilators\u2026 for sharing among all 54 countries.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So how did the <\/span>Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)<\/span><\/a> respond to the crisis African people are facing? While they created a $2 million aid plan, the money is not going towards these urgent medical needs. Instead, <\/span>Sida<\/span><\/a> plans to use the $2 million to fund abortion kits for the continent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur program is especially important for vulnerable women and girls in the region. We need to address the effects of COVID-19 quickly to have their human rights safeguarded, so they are able to decide for themselves when and with whom they will have children,\u201d Sida Director General Carin J\u00e4mti<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sida will send funding to <\/span>DKT International<\/span><\/a>, an organization funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a> that provides <\/span>products<\/span><\/a> such as manual vacuum aspiration kits and abortion drug kits. On its webpage, DKT boasts that about <\/span>8 million pregnancies<\/span><\/a> have been \u201caverted\u201d because of its services. The kits Sida obtains from DKT International are to be sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n