DEADLY BIRTH CONTROL: The Black is Back Coalition joins the fight to expose the racist, eugenicist agendas of those posing as reproductive health advocates to target Black women the world over by deceptively marketing the drug Depo Provera to our community as a safe and effective form of birth control; however, the reality is that it is the deadliest form of birth control that not only increases sterilization and breast cancer among users, but that also significantly increases a person’s chances of acquiring and transmitting HIV/AIDS.
The well researched report Depo-Provera: Deadly Violence Against Women,published by the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, documents the agendas of Pfizer, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Planned Parenthood, the US Agency for International Development(USAID), the UN, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control, Columbia and Johns Hopkins Universities and a host of many other population control advocates and eugenicists who deceitfully mask the dangers of Depo-Provera (more commonly known as the depo-shot), a controversial and potentially lethal birth control drug, in order to push their eugenicist agenda, via its widespread usage into the Black community.
African women and other women of color are targeted throughout the world and are often coerced into taking the depo-shot, in which the side effects include difficulty getting pregnant/sterilization, increased risk of breast cancer, and increased risks of contracting and transmitting HIV/AIDs. Modern day eugenicists deliberately hide these dangerous side effects from the Black community, whose women have been repeatedly used worldwide in Depo-Provera experimentation, without informed consent. One such experiment, which was the largest experiment to date of its kind, lasted from 1967 to 1978 and involved 14,000 low income women in Atlanta Georgia at the Grady clinic (http://www.cwpe.org/node/185). They were never informed that they were being used for experimentation and they were never informed of the drug’ s grave side effects. Many women developed cancer and many died Another such experiment lasted from 1994 to 2006 and involved over 9000 impoverished women in Ghana. Again, informed consent was never obtained from these women, who were merely told that they were receiving routine healthcare. This experiment was conducted by Dr. James Phillips, who is presently a member of the faculty of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Today, Depo-Provera is promoted by such population control advocates throughout our communities as a safe and effective contraceptive.
As evidenced, Depo-Provera has a long and controversial history. From the 1960s to the 80s, the FDA withheld its approval of Depo three times because of consistent links to cancer in test animals. In 1992 it finally received FDA approval over the objections of many women’s rights health organizations (http://www.cwpe.org/node/185). In 2004 the FDA identified Depo-Provera as causing serious side effects and issued Black- Box warnings, which are the most stringent warnings mandated by the FCC to notify the public of the significant risk of serious and potentially life threating side effects posed by a drug. The FDA mandated that patients be notified that: 1). Women may lose significant bone mineral density that is not fully reversible and, therefore, (2) Depo Provera should not be used as a long-term birth control method for more than two years. Other warnings include: (3) blood clots in arms, legs, lungs and eyes, (4) stroke, (5) bleeding irregularities, (6)weight gain, (7) ectopic pregnancy, and (8) delayed return to fertility and lack of return to fertility. (9) In addition, scientific research in 2012 reported that women using Depo Provera have double the risk of developing breast cancer. (10). Depo- Provera also has an unintended consequence of significantly increasing a woman’s susceptibility to HIV/AIDS and all other sexually transmitted diseases due to the fact that the high dose of progesterone in Depo-Provera induces thinning of the vaginal walls. (page 1)
In a 2011 study of seven African countries involving over 3,000 participants, researchers, led by Renee Heffron at the University of Washington in Seattle, found that women who used Depo-Provera were twice as likely to acquire, as well as to transmit, HIV/AIDS as those who did not; thus, strongly demonstrating a correlation between aggressive promotion of Depo and the HIV/AIDs epidemic ravishing the African continent. (Yet despite these disturbing findings, USAID sends more units of Depo Provera to Africa than any other country in the world). In fact, South Africa is considered the country with the highest rate of AIDS in the world, with the groups most at risk being women aged 25 and 29 and men aged 30 -34. Not coincidentally, South Africa is also one of the countries with the world’s highest Depo usage. Also, ln 2009 the CDC reported that African Americans were 44% of all new HIV infections. Yet, African American women make up 84% of Depo-Provera users. On the other hand, UN data shows that the administration of Depo-Provera to European populations is negligible and averages between .7% and 2% worldwide. Meanwhile the birth rate for African American women has dropped by 30%, compared to only 5% for White American women. In 2011 the CDC reported that Black women in the US had 583,079 births, while White women had 2,150,926 births.
In spite of the serious and deadly implications of using this type of birth control, and in spite of the FDA mandated black box warnings, population control advocates continue to illegally promote Depo without black box warnings and without signed informed consent forms informing users of its gravity. In fact, the WHO and the CDC went as far as issuing a statement stating that not only did Depo-Provera not increase a woman’s chance of contracting AIDS, but that it was also perfectly safe for use with women who had the disease. On its website, Planned Parenthood promotes the drug as safe, effective and convenient. It lists the side effects as being: irregular menstrual cycles, weight gain, hair loss, change in appetite, depression, and sore breasts.
The International Criminal Court defines genocide in part as committing acts with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as killing members of the group, causing bodily or mental harm to members of the group, and imposing measures to prevent births within the group. The Black is Back Coalition commends the Rebecca Project for its excellent and well documented research and supports its conclusion that the administering of the lethal contraceptive Depo-Provera to millions of women of color and impoverished women, while fraudulently concealing the dangers of its use is a policy of genocide. Therefore, we join the Rebecca Project in its call for the following actions:
• The DOJ bring Pfizer up on criminal charges of fraud.
• That the President issue a moratorium on the use of Depo-Provera to protect all women of color until informed and enforceable consent procedures are in place.
• That all Medicaid, state insurance programs, and USAID payments to Pfizer and USAID contractors be immediately stopped.
• That the US government hold Congressional Hearings where victims of non-consensual experimentation can testify to bring public attention to the matter.
• That we work to create a global coalition of advocates to monitor unethical medical experimentation in Africa. (Forthcoming will be a more detailed analysis and proposal pertaining to the rampant, abusive, and unethical medical experimentation underway on the African Continent.)
Resources:
http://rebeccaprojectjustice.org/images/stories/depo-provera-deadly-reproductive-violence-rebecca-project-for-human-rights-2013.pdf
http://labeling.pfizer.com/ShowLabeling.aspx?id=522
http://www.cwpe.org/node/185
http://www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/risk_HIV_AAA.pdf
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control/birth-control-shot-depo-provera-4242.htm
http://www.global-sisterhood-network.org/content/view/2642/59/
read the current article in marie Claire August 2015 page 91 ” Burkina Faso big shot, a discreet, transportable, contraceptive, is revolutionizing birth control across Africa” since March of 2015 Pfizer administered over 70,000 doses of a single shot of depo provera that lasts three months. they are planning to bring the birth control to 69 other countries in Africa and Asia! interesting that these continents have countries with some of the largests and fastests growing urban populations
You would do well to offer a companion piece with a.) A statement about birth control in general and it’s implications for black men and women. and b.)a summary of “safe & effective” alternatives to depo.
This has messed up my life.. Now I know why I have not been able to get pregnant.. And I have been trying for 7 years.. I took depo Provera for 10 years.. My heart ❤ is broke.. My husband has no kids and I can’t ever give him any..
It took me 18mths sis after losing 3 kids. I have four beautiful children now. Don’t give up!
I was on Depo for awhile. I gained weight, experienced hair loss, depression, circulatory issues. I was told that I would have to have help to get pregnant after having two miscarriages, but I already had two kids. I got pregnant within the next few months, not trying, but she is a blessing. She came 12 years after my second child, almost 11 years after stopping the shot. There is still hope. One way to try is to start another form of birth control, possibly the pill for a month or two and them get off. May God bless you and your husband with children.
I used depo for about three years and after reading this article I feel as if I might be a victim. I’ve been TTC for about a year now with no luck.
Its okay it took me a while but soon as it was finally out of my system i got pregnant very quick…dont give up dont take any other birth controls let nature run its course…
Same here 11 years two kids they never warned me
some women spend the rest of their lives trying to conceive and it is sad. today is my daughter’s 16th birthday, i used mirena for 6 months in 2005 or 6 and it took me til last year to get pregnant. i used wild yam root to help balance my hormones and out the blue it happened after i had given up. the men are just as upset when the use of a hormonal birth control is the blame for infertility. i’m so tired of hearing the same story over and over again. most women think these drugs are not related to each other but they can do the same harm no matter how it’s used, pill, patch, shot, implanon, norplant, nova t, these fake recalls are upsetting skyla is mirena is norplant is implanon. changed dosage and a new name = new product= wrong
I am not pregnant after being on depi for 8 yrs then 11 yrs after my first child im having my second have faith stay prayed up it will happen. But im mad to. Bs
I was on it since 16 and Ive had miscarriage after miscarriage and has been off the depo 5 years. My heart is broken too but enraged at the government for letting them do us like this. I hate my mom wasnt informed of the future risks of putting me on that drug.
I accepted 2 Depo shots from my doctor sometime in 1998. I gained 90 lbs in 6months. I went from a size 9/10 to a tight size 16. I stopped taking the shot and lost 10lbs. Weight has been a struggle since taking the depo shot..My advice for Woman of color..Stay away from all shots approved by the government. The USA believes we are disposable and it has no problem with using us as guinnea pigs.
I am with you on that. I gained 80+. It has taken me over 10 years to get most of the weight off.
for some reason woman have a failure to communicate properly with each other. they think what happened to you can’t happen to them. the warnings on these drugs are just there to decorate the paper. i think once we are thrown out of balance with an unneeded hormones it’s just a roller coaster ride to feel normal again. unless we are out of balance we should never use hormonal birth control. men are not helping by asking if we are on birth control. i found contradicting research on the nonoxynol 9 i think it works but they took it out of condoms because they control the research and they trying to control the population.
Now maybe there is a biology difference between some black woman and this medication, but I have been in it twice in my life. For a period of about 7 years, I got off it to try ( Nuva ring) hated that got back in it, until I decided to have a child, had my son, no complications , he is perfect. No stretch marks and while I am not a size 6 anymore, I’m an 8/10 that is likely do to the fact that I munched out while pregnant than the shot. I am now on implanon ( the rod version) and everything seems fine. Seems odd to post this part/ but I am as white as ghost and this was given to me while I was active duty military and I’d like to think the government had some interest in seeing me healthy.
Brenna being a white women & on depo is totally off topic. This clearly directed towards any other race but some of color. What works for you women of no melain doesn’t work for us women of melain. Remember our bodies aren’t made for all this scientific bs there creating in a lab.
doesn’t matter what color your skin is, norplant aka implanon was suppose to be off the market because of a class action lawsuit years ago. they can’t give it to one race and refuse the other that would cause alarm. black women and africans are targeted lied to and coaxed into using it. dalkon shield took the fall in the 70’s and was supposedly removed but we have more iud’s than ever today. just because you were military you can not be excluded, i know women that swear by a birth control device, then try to use it again and end up with a hysterectomy.
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this article mentions a lot of numbers but not the fact that in a lot these countries men are a lot less likely to use condoms during sex, which would account partly for the increase in women carrying and spreading HIV/AIDS. Birth control is exactly what it says. birth. control. it helps prevent pregnancies, not STD’s, no form of birth control does that. only safe sex (no way to have safe sex when men are refusing condoms huh?) and getting tested regularly does. you’re also saying that it is pushed on black women but my doctor tried to get me to take the pill so bad because he feared for my weight gain while on the depo and I refused. in the past year of being on Depo I’ve gained 10lbs and lost just as much in the same exact time span. I’m 19 and a busy college student so… I would definitely forget to take the pill on a regular basis. therefore wasting my money and defeating the purpose of even taking birth control. Women go on birth control to have an extra safety net and protect themselves from pregnancy. Yes the Depo messes with your natural body cycles but that’s what hormones does. the whole entire reason that birth control works in the first place is that it regulates your hormones and puts them on a regular cycle. that’s why you stop the Depo and it takes your body a while to get back to its so called “normal” natural cycle that it’s set for itself. we drink milk on a regular but we don’t complain about all the hormones that are pumped into that, now do we? Just saying.
I strongly believe that the implanon implant will be the next experiment to be made a topic. I’ve had it for nine months and I developed depression and anxiety and I was told that’s not apart of the side effects… I’ve took it out and I’m starting to feel better. The doctors were so adamant about me getting on it and not taking it out. Hmmm I wonder why????
same story with the iud. i think we are all included in their research. the longer you use it the more positive they can write the reviews. they will basically refuse to remove implants. they tried to send me home with a lost mirena and a nuva ring, turns out they were hiding something.
This is scary. I’ve been on depo on & off since I had my only child 14 years ago. I had 2 miscarriages and for the past 2 years have had no luck with ttc. I’ve had my blood tested and they are still finding low levels of the depo in my system. I’m 35 now and I fear that I won’t be able to have another child be for I’m 40.
wow try to balance your hormones naturally with wild yam or chaste tree berry. my daughter turns 16 today and my baby with be 10 months on the 16th. i nearly fainted when i got that positive test because i tried for years and just gave up. i also relieved my stress because i couldn’t even get a positive ovulation test. these drugs should not be used for a decade of even half a decade. our lifespan from the hormones and the stress of not being able to reproduce when wanted will damage daily lives and shorten them.
IAM 26 YEARS OLD African American female. I started the depo shot, I was on it for about almost a year or so, Reason I stopped using it was because my bones started to feel like they were deteriorating, this crazy weird tingly feeling in my body, I didn’t like that at all, when I got off of it I didn’t have a period for over a year but I did eventually get pregnant, I really wouldn’t recommend the depo shot, and im trying to get my mom to take my 16 year old sister off of that mess too
my teeth started to crumble i know my bones are just as bad because i feel the pain. these hormones cause arthritis and pain and pain makes me act violent. it’s sad to feel like your body is deteriorating because of something a doctor offered or coaxed you into getting. my mother put my daughter on the pill they are blind to the side effects. she has overstepped her boundaries and i can’t handle the stupidity. she yelled at me saying _____ used birth control for 20 years. i yelled back and said she also don’t have a uterus now and she lost a baby. i was an only child because of dalkon shield. my daughter was almost an only child because of mirena. as far as i knew at the time IUDs were a thing of the past. failure to communicate amongst women. i totally flipped out when i researched what the doctor had talked me into getting.
The deposit shot has totally messed up my life…..I am unable to have kids now n now I know why…..but I am thankful for da one I did have before I took da shot
I was given Depo-Provera in a pill 1979 in the first weeks of my pregnancy. I took 1, became violently ill & stopped immediately; PDR at that time said it was to promote spontaneous abortion. My daughter is 35 now, i don’t know the lingering affects on either of us. I’ve struggled with weight all the years since & my daughter has no children. Women of Color must remain vigilant on unnatural elements introduced in our bodies. My Indigenous Ancestors used the Pennyroyal herb for birth control, so strong a pregnant woman should not even touch it. When resources were limited they drank a tea so no seed could take root in the womb until they could provide for children. Sisters we must Love & Support One Another! Gratitude for this information to Women of Color; genocide has been a concern for our Nations since colonialism began. Take care Dear Ones <3
they are still pretending to fight over abortion rights here. the real issue is the toxic poison they are giving the women of all races but black women the most. it is so upsetting for women to have to disable their uterus to 15 to 50 instead of disabling the gun. it’s like saying let me put on this bullet proof vest now shoot me. no one should have a sick uterus for their entire reproductive life. how normal can we feel? we are labeled crazy because we act crazy because we feel out of balance because we are on these unnatural hormones. the womb should be left alone. they are attacking here there and everywhere.
This drug is a nightmare! I was not given this drug as a method of birth control. Rather, my OB gave me this drug to thin out my uterine lining to “prepare” me for a sterilzation procedure and make it easier for her to access my fallopian tubes. Among other side effects, this drug made me progressively depressed and suicidal. It was an horrific experience and at the time I didnt know the cause was this drug. Then, after 3 months, it was like poof, that sense of darkness and suicide suddenly lifted. I also bled daily for over 8 weeks. It should be taken off the market immediately.
same way i felt about mirena. it was basically forced on me to stop the bleeding the patch started. one mistake can damage us for years. i was talked in to the patch by a black doctor who used the tactic i’m shocked you are not on birth control don’t you know the fastest rising cases of hiv are among the black woman. she wanted to test me for this that and the other, i said if it makes you happy go ahead but i use condoms. later on that night i realized she used fake caring to get me on drugs. no birth control other than condoms help prevent aids.
This drug is a nightmare! I was not given this drug as a method of birth control. Rather, my OB gave me this drug to thin out my uterine lining to “prepare” me for a sterilzation procedure and make it easier for her to access my fallopian tubes. Among other side effects, this drug made me progressively depressed and suicidal. It was an horrific experience and at the time I didnt know the cause was this drug. Then, after 3 months, it was like poof, that sense of darkness and suicide suddenly lifted. I also bled daily for over 8 weeks. It should be taken off the market immediately.
I WONDER BY MY MOTHER TAKING DEPO FOR 14 YEARS IS THATS WHY SHE GOT LUPOS? SHE’S 49 AND STOPPED TAKING IT A COUPLE YAERS AGO.
i would say yes. hormone drugs often lead to autoimmune diseases. my little cousin also has lupus and has been on the shot for maybe 7 years.
Well from my experiences I was on depo for 3 years. got off it and got pregnant a year later without even trying. Got the shot right after I delivered my baby. First month didnt gain any weight. By the 3rd month realized I gained prob 5 pounds but the shot increases appetite once i realized this I controlled my eating and dropped the weight simple. On the shot for 3 years, got pregnant after one year of being off the shot. no complications and I am right back on the shot. I am a black woman. What works for some does not work for others.
a lot of these drugs work in 3 different ways. some trick the body into thinking its all ready pregnant and i think that is where the weight gain comes from. i can handle a few pounds because i am all ready fat. i couldn’t handle looking in the mirror one day at work and noticed it looked like someone took clippers to the middle of my head. i’ve been natural every since.
Took this as a teenager for about 2-3 years Took me4 years to get pregnant. …hair shedding,14day heavy,heavy cycles,depression mood swings worst birth control ever my sis on other hand never had cycle,stopped and has had two miscarriages so far
sad, i don’t know what i would have done after 15 years losing a baby. i would have lost my mind for one. but anyway it seems the waiting game doesn’t help with hormones. i would try herbs like wild yam, chaste tree berry, even fenugreek which is used for help with milk supply but it also helps balance hormones.
my mother put me on a depo when I started high school I was on depo until a year after I graduated high school . Now I am 30 and have been married to my husband for 7 years and was told I will not be able to have kids on my own. It breaks my heart every day sometimes I can’t help but cry.
I will say go back to doctor and ask them to check your blood and if the shot is still in your system because I think you will still be able to it just has to get out of your body plus you are young and take vitamins to increase your levels for reproduction I have seen it in Wal-Mart one thing is that yes you have been told you can’t but what they don’t know is that God created us and there is nothing that I have seen from men on this earth can stop and what I mean is keep trying and God will bless you. I have 3 kids living a total of 4 that I gave birth too and I took the shot only difference is I took breaks like my doctor told me to do then after a few years later I would become pregnant again. My kids are all 5 years apart so don’t give up. Man I pissed off to know that we have all fell victim to this ewwwwweeeee
i’m sorry that happened to you. have you tried to google your complications with natural herbs? i know what it’s like to want a baby and see everyone pregnant every where you look. big bellies everywhere it was so depressing. wild yam gave me my cycle back and my bf thought it was just vitamins so he also took it. i thought it was funny to see him take a womans herb.
month later mothers day may 12th i got pregnant and was due feb 14th
I have been on Depo on and off for at least 5 years but my doctor told me after 2 years straight of getting my shot I have to go off of it so I do but I have had 4 kids and 3 still living. I am not on the shot and have not been since 2014 but I have not had any kids since 2012 and not I am beside myself hearing this bull crap that the government is doing to us but at the same time I guess nothing is safe any more and I am going to check into this a little more because now it has gone way too far and what else will they try to do to us see this why action needs to take place against them to show them that they will and should be held responsible for false information used on women who do not want to have kids until they are financial stable or is married. I need a very strong drink right now!!!!!!!!!!!!
i was asked if i could afford kids at the time. that fake concern is what turns my stomach. i was in college day and night and had to drop out because my iron was so low i couldn’t stay awake.
I started the shot before my pregnancy and after I had my son I got it a few more times and my hormones have never been the same.
I’m online looking up the damages of Depo and found this article and thread. I want to sue Phizer! First, Our Dr.’s are not doing enough to warn us about the time limit in taking this drug! Second, Phizer needs to do more to warn of the side effects and time limits.
I took it, off and on, over a period of own known years. I now have gained over 35 pounds, have developed restless leg syndrome as a result of mineral loss, (I have to take a multi-mineral ever night before bed.) I now have heart, kidney and liver tissues due to toxic and heavy metals. My nails and once beautiful soft skin are now dry and brittle as is my once thick hair now thinning hair.
This shot has recked my thyroid which controls multiple functions of the body including our precious glands.
I Just want to BEG young Black Girls NOT to EVER even try this! Not even if you are skinny and want to gain a few pounds! It’s NOT WORTH IT!!!
Thoughtful commentary , I was enlightened by the info ! Does someone know where my company might be able to obtain a blank a form form to complete ?
I’m so glad I saw this I was on the depo 14 years and recently just lost my baby.I will not be using this for of birth control ever again!
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19 years of depo. No side effect and I have 3 beautiful healthy children. All birth control increase risk for developing different cancers.My oldest is 20, my youngest is 9. I’m still on depo today with no problems.
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