Feminist Peace Network

As we have noted before on this blog, maternal mortality in Afghanistan is truly an atrocity. How heartwarming then to read over on Our Bodies Our Blog that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spent one quarter of the funds that Congress gave them to tackle maternal and child health problems in Afghanistan ($1.3 million) on a no-bid contract to provide LeapFrog computerized books to people in Afghanistan.

“The LeapFrog books sat in a warehouse for nearly two years because — wait for it — field testing took a while. Young writes: “Meanwhile the devices’ AAA batteries died; HHS spent another $9,800 to replace them last fall.”"

Meanwhile (remember this post is supposedly about maternal mortality…),

“The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, officials at both the CDC and the Afghan Ministry of Public Health are questioning whether U.S.-led medical training “pushed Afghan doctors to perform more c-sections before they were ready and before the hospital had the necessary anesthesia, sanitation and blood supply.”Alison Young writes:

The rate of normal-sized babies dying in labor and delivery at Rabia Balkhi jumped 67 percent last year, CDC scientists in Atlanta found. Worse, the newspaper’s analysis shows these babies were nearly four times more likely to die when delivered by Caesarean section, a potentially lifesaving operation encouraged by U.S. trainers.Afghan mothers were in danger, too. Eighteen died in childbirth there last year; two-thirds of the deaths involved c-sections, including issues with surgical skill, anesthesia, transfusions and misdiagnoses, records show.”

Unspeakable isn’t really an adequate description of this wanton and callous endangerment of the lives of women and children not to mention the squandering of U.S. tax dollars. The word for it is murder and it should be immediately investigated by Congress.

No word on whether the LeapFrogs have been tested for lead or whether the “books” are in Arabic or English,..

Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities