1. Dr. Kate Law kate.v.law@hotmail.com @drkatelaw
‘Choice or Coercion? South Africa, the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and the Debate over Depo-Provera c
Dr. Kate Law @drkatelaw

2. Paper outline
Looking at AAM campaign to force SA’s expulsion from IPPF
Focusing on the arguments made by the AAM
How do race and gender affect reproductive freedom?
Depo-Provera: choice or coercion?
How does feminism travel across borders?
Who gets to speak on behalf of whom?

3. High Profile British AAM Campaigns

4. Depo-Provera Injectable contraceptive Works for 12-14 weeks
Highly effective
Cheaper than the ‘pill’
Prolonged exposure can lead to osteoporosis, can also cause irregular menstruation, depression, hair loss.
Can’t protect against STDs.
“Silent” contraception

5. Safe for Some?
‘dogs and monkeys appear to have developed cancers of their reproductive systems while...other contraceptives tested in a similar manner have not produced this effect. Based on these facts, it is my view that Depo-Provera should not be given to women as a contraceptive until and unless convincing new evidence is gathered to show that this animal data is wrong or that Depo-Provera does not cause cancer in humans’.
Dr. Bruce Schearer, speaking at the IPPF’s central medical committee meeting, 1979.

6. Dr. Knows Best?
…Depo-Provera is the ideal drug to appease the frustration of medical professionals who are dealing with women who will not toe the line and will not do what is considered by the doctors to be in their own best interests.’
A Report by the campaign against Depo-Provera (1983), pp.22-23
Berer, (1983) Who Needs Depo-Provera?

7. Testimony from ‘Community Worker, Cape Town’
‘after my first baby this is what I was told to use … the other experience that I’ve had is that after my baby, without asking my permission I’ve just been given the injection as a routine thing. I mean it happens while you are still not really aware of what is happening to you, or you can’t really object, you only discovered afterwards … what I am saying is that you don’t choose … you are ignorant, you don’t know the field, you don’t know what is best for you and nobody tells you, so you accept what you’re given’.

8. Mail and Guardian, 8th May 2016
In the Headlines
‘Dire lack of birth-control education’ Mail & Guardian, 28th September 2010.
‘People need to know more about abortion and contraception’ Mail & Guardian, 3rd February 2015.
‘Be a man: Use birth control’ Mail & Guardian, 12th June 2015
‘Planning pregnancies: a luxury for African women’ Mail & Guardian, 8th May 2016
Mail and Guardian, 8th May 2016

9. Depo-Provera Now
In a 2015 UN report, it was noted that ‘short-term and reversible methods, such as the pill, injectable and male condom, are more common than other methods in Africa’ (UN, Trends in Contraception Use World Wide, 2015: 2).
In April 2017 the WHO released data which warned that the use of Depo-Provera may increase a woman's risk of contracting HIV by up to 50%.
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