Kosovo, Albania -- April, 1999 -- The United Nations Population Fund and other pro-abortion groups including Planned Parenthood think abortion is the wayto help koso refugees. Saying abortion is "a basic human right," Planned parenthood donated $100,000 to the Fund and to the Albanian Family Planning Association.
Part of the funds would go to pay for "emergency contraception" that could be used in high doses to manufacture an abortion. Planned Parenthood is also advocating use of this abortifacient birth control method for Kosovar women who are victims of rape at the hands of Serbian soldiers.
Use of the "morning after" pill by rape victims is tantamount to abortion, a senior Vatican official said Tuesday, expressing church opposition to their distribution to Kosovo refugees by U.N. aid workers.
He called the pill an "abortion technique" that should not be confused with contraceptives.
The position stated by Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, reflected the Vatican's firm opposition to abortion and its concern that rape victims would obtain abortions.
Others noted that the rapes are suffered by ethnic Albanian women, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. The Islamic faith teaches strongly against the use of abortion. Pro-life leaders are concerned that high-dosage birth control abortifiacients will either be forced on Albanian women or that they will use the methods without proper explanation that they are abortifacient.
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