A total of 56 jobs have been lost.
The halt in US funding worth the equivalent of E10.7
million is a
direct result of an executive order signed by US President Donald
Trump on his first full day in office. He reinstated and extended what is known
as the Mexico City Policy or Global Gag Rule which had first been put in place
in 1984.
Under the revised rule organisations receiving aid
from the United States have to show they do not use their own non-United
States’ funds to provide abortion services, counsel patients about the option
of abortions, refer them for abortion or advocate for the liberalisation of
abortion law.
Abortion is not legal in Swaziland, unless ordered by the courts.
FLAS was opened in 1979. For almost the first two decades of operations
its strategic focus was contraception and family planning services. On its
website FLAS explains, ‘However, since 1999, FLAS has undergone a
process of transformation that has seen its focus shift from family planning to
comprehensive and holistic sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and
HIV services and information. This was largely prompted by the International
Conference on Population and Development in 1994. Given that more than half of
Swaziland’s population is younger than 20 years of age, FLAS’s target
population is now youths aged 10 to 24 years.
‘For over a decade FLAS’s core services have included counselling and
treatment for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues, family planning
including vasectomy and tubal ligations, male circumcision, pre- and post-natal
care, immunisations and screenings including for cervical cancer, breast cancer
and pregnancy tests.’
Maxwell Dlamini, FLAS Resource Mobilisation and
Communications Office, told the Sunday
Observer newspaper in Swaziland (5 August 2018) its E10.7 million funding from
the United States had been halted and 56 jobs (26 staff and 30 community
workers) were lost as a result. The Associated Press
news agency had previously reported this was about one-quarter of
FLAS’s total funding.
Dlamini told the Observer
FLAS recognised that unsafe abortion was a major killer of women in
Swaziland. FLAS came across several women each day with unwanted pregnancies,
he said.
The Observer reported, ‘He
added that its recognition as a health problem was essential as well as
designing preventive measures for it.’
He said FLAS worked within the law in Swaziland.
Coordinating Assembly of Non- Governmental
Organisations (CANGO) Communications Officer Nkosingiphile Myeni said many
non-governmental organisations providing sexual and reproductive health services
believed that the US policy did not reduce abortions but increased more unsafe
and unhealthy ones, leading to more women’s deaths which could be averted.
See also
Kingdom’s
Confused Law on Abortion
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/03/kingdoms-confused-law-on-abortions.html
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