Bishops allege ‘contraception by stealth’

Kenyan Catholic bishops have strongly opposed a national tetanus vaccination campaign, which the Government launched on 13 October targeting 2.4 million women of child-bearing age, writes Fredrick Nzwili.

The bishops have told Catholics to shun the vaccination, saying the Government had not taken measures to ensure it was not being used as a contraceptive.

Bishop Paul Kariuki, the chairman of the Catholic Health Commission, said the Church  wanted to ensure vaccines administered were free of the hormone beta human chorionic gonadotropin (B-HCG) to protect the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person.

The Government insists the vaccine is safe. Ray Towey, a Catholic medical missionary who has worked in East Africa for 20 years, particularly in the treatment of tetanus, said the bishops’ objection was “a great scandal”. The reason that young women are targeted is to eliminate neonatal tetanus, he said. The mortality rate for this condition is almost 100 per cent in most rural hospitals in Africa. This can be eliminated by the vaccination of pregnant women or women of child-bearing age.