Tetanus jab: Vaccination Campaign or State-run Mass Sterilization Campaign
After almost a year long feud between the Kenyan government and the Catholic church over the government’s tetanus vaccination campaign, that the church claimed was geared at causing sterility in women, the state emerges the apparent victor after a report on tests conducted on the vaccine suggests its safety. 59 sample vials of the vaccine were tested by a joint team of experts out of which only 3 were found to be positive for beta HCG, a hormone that causes sterility and miscarriages in women.
Although the 3 vials that did test positive for beta HCG will be subjected to further tests, the government gloats over the fact that all the three vials had been collected from the field and submitted as open.
The Catholic church, in making the allegations, had questioned the secrecy in which the vaccination campaign was being exercised. In a November Press Statement, the Kenya Conference of Kenyan bishops asserted that for a long time they had received no cooperation from the Ministry of Health with regard to joint tests on the vaccine. Further, they averred that there have been reports in some countries where “the same vaccine had been laced with the Beta-HCG hormone which causes infertility and multiple miscarriages in women.” This had propelled them to raise questions as to whether there was a link between the vaccination campaign and the said population control programs.
Although there has been no concrete evidence to back the church’s accusations, governments have been known to engage in undoubtedly controversial population control mechanisms. Case in point would be the government of India that made headlines last November after 12 women died after a government funded mass sterilization campaign. Relatives of the victims came out in condemnation and made claims that the victims had been coerced by health workers into joining the sterilization camps.
Many people have spoken for population control with Garret Hardin in his popular 1968 essay, ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ making the point that the world and its resources are finite and therefore cannot support a population whose growth rate is exponential. Therefore, there needs to be intervention, and if need be, the law should come into play. Policies have been made and implemented with regard to population control, but should the state go a step further to impose contraception on its population, without their consent.
The Pill, A birth control method that includes a combination of an estrogen and a progestin that, when taken orally every day, inhibits female fertility, was received with tremendous acclaim in the 1960’s as it was seen as a symbol of feminism, liberation and control. Feminism and liberation as now women would not need to rely on men for contraception. Control of the population is well enough but shouldn’t a contraceptive also be a symbol of choice?
