VIDA HUMANA INTERNACIONAL

Hispanic Division of Human Life International

Press Release

Vida Humana Internacional – 45 SW 71 Avenue – Miami, FL 33144 – USA –  www.vidahumana.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            CONTACT: Adolfo J. Castañeda

Friday 21 January 2005                                                         Telephone: (305) 260-0525

                                                                                                Email: adolfo@vidahumana.org

Vida Humana Internacional Denounces

U.S. Funding of Anti-Catholic, Anti-Life Attacks

on Hispanic Countries

MIAMI, FLORIDA – Mrs. Magaly Llaguno, Executive Director of Vida Humana Internacional (VHI), the largest Hispanic pro-life organization in the world, has issued a devastating and totally documented report denouncing over 20 anti-life and anti-Catholic organizations, which are active in Latin America thanks to the millions of dollars they receive from U.S. foundations and even from the U.S. government itself. The report is titled “U.S. Organizations and Foundations Launch Anti-Life Attacks on Hispanic countries”, and can be downloaded for free at VHI’s English website (http://www.vidahumana.org/english/family/life-family_index.html) at the following link: http://www.vidahumana.org/english/family/us-orgs-foundations.html.

As pro-lifers march in Washington, D.C., to remember the millions of babies who have fallen victims of abortion since 1973, this report by VHI issues a call to not forget that the war on the unborn and their mothers has unfortunately not stopped within U.S. borders, but has extended beyond and into the last Catholic and pro-life continent of the world: Latin America.

The report denounces that over the course of the last three decades, over 20 pro-abortion organizations, coalitions, federations and their many affiliates in Hispanic countries, have received millions upon millions of dollars from powerful U.S. “charitable” foundations, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to attack life, family and Catholic doctrine. Among the foundations named are the Gates Foundation, which provided $2 million of the more than $70-million income of International Planned Parenthood Federation\Western Hemisphere (IPPF\WHR) in the year 2000. IPPF is the largest federation of pro-abortion NGOs in the world and has been very active in Latin America, since at least 1972.

Among the other anti-life organizations denounced in the report for their activities in Latin America are: Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), Inter-American Parliamentary Group on Population and Development (IAPGP), International Medical Parliamentarians Organization (IMPO), the International Society of Abortion Doctors, the Latin American Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology Associations (FLASOG), the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRLP), the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception, the Latin American Consortium for Emergency Contraception (LACEC), the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), and the International Projects Assistance Services (IPAS).

The most common strategies these groups use to promote abortion in the Hispanic world are pornographic sex “education”, “reproductive health” and the abortifacient “morning after” pill. These euphemisms hide the real purpose of these organizations: to eventually legalize abortion in a continent where the laws of most countries are pro-life.

The most insidious of all the anti-life groups mentioned in the report is U.S.-based Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC). The main purpose of this pseudo “Catholic” pro-abortion organization is to cause division and dissent among the Catholic faithful regarding Church teaching on abortion, with millions of dollars from U.S. foundations. Most people in Latin America are Catholics. Thus CFFC attacks are not only anti-life, but also anti-Catholic.

It is high time for pro-life Catholics in the U.S. to start helping turn the tide with their prayers and money. One way to do that is to support VHI efforts to help its affiliates in Latin America. Hispanic pro-life heroes are working with little resources to undo the damage done to their Catholic countries by a plethora of anti-life, anti-Catholic groups with millions of U.S. dollars in their pockets.

VHI is the largest and most effective Catholic, pro-life organization in the Hispanic world. It is the Hispanic Division of Human Life International (HLI), the largest and most effective Catholic, pro-life organization in the entire world. HLI, 4 Family Life, Front Royal, VA 22630, (540) 622-5200. www.hli.org.