Contact: Anne Roback Morse, Population Research Institute, 540-660-2733, anne@pop.org

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Kenyan government is poised to embark upon a coercive population control program targeting women, the Population Research Institute (PRI) revealed this week. PRI's Weekly Briefing, "Controlling Women's Desires in Kenya," documented that the Kenyan government, with support from the U.N. Population Fund and U.S. Agency for International Development, has devised plans to radically reduce the number of children that Kenyan women desire. The plans are revealed in two white papers published by Kenya's National Council for Population and Development.

The first white paper is "supported by the United Nations Population Fund," and states that "the demand for children is still high and is unlikely to change unless substantial changes in desired family sizes are achieved among the poor in general... Thus the challenge is how to reduce further the continued high demand for children."

Both white papers assert that women desire too many children, and that this desire must be curbed. The papers admit that knowledge of modern contraceptive methods is virtually "universal" at 97%, and that access to (U.S.-supplied) drugs and devices is not the problem. Fewer than 2% of Kenyan women state cost or access as a reason for not using contraception. Despite a half century of anti-people propaganda, they continue to want more children than the population controllers want them to have.

The government has now upped the ante, according to the PRI briefing, and is imposing numerical targets on family size and for new contraceptive "acceptors."

"The new policy is insulting to women," notes PRI President Steven Mosher. "The Kenyan government, urged on by the UNFPA and USAID, is asserting that the women of Kenya should not be allowed to make their own decisions regarding how many children to have, and need to be re-educated into rejecting large families. Such open targets for births and contraceptive acceptors are a clear violation of the Tiahrt Amendment. Congress ought to investigate."

The Tiahrt Amendment prohibits U.S. funding from going towards coercive population control programs. Last year, the U.S. gave over $30 million to the United Nations Population Fund, which is one of the architects of the new Kenyan program. The bulk of USAID's direct aid to Kenya goes to the same purpose. For every dollar spent on nutrition, USAID spends $183 dollars on contraception.