[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 29 (Tuesday, March 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CHILD SURVIVAL

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share the stories of a Kenyan 
doctor who describes the use of U.S. funded population control dollars 
in Africa. Dr. Stephen Karanja states, ``Our health sector has 
collapsed. Thousands of Kenyan people will die of malaria whose 
treatment costs a few cents, in health facilities whose stores are 
stacked to the roof with millions of dollars worth of pills, IUDs, 
Norplant Depo-provera, most of which are supplied with American 
money.''
  He goes on to say, ``Some of these contraceptives, like Depo-provera, 
cause terrible side effects to the poor people of Kenya, who do not 
even have competent medical check-ups before injection.''
  He continues, ``A mother brought a child to me for pneumonia, but I 
had no penicillin to give the child. What I have in the stores are 
cases of contraceptives.''
  Colleagues, we should reexamine our spending priorities. We are 
overfunding family planning and underfunding child survival. We should 
focus our efforts on saving lives.

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