Students at African school chase away Planned Parenthood affiliate, burn condoms
Students at a school in southeastern Africa reportedly chased away representatives of an international Planned Parenthood affiliate and burned boxes of contraceptives they provided.
Students at Natola Secondary School in the Dowa District of Central Malawi refused to let presenters from the Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM) speak to them and physically chased them from the school property on Sept. 29, according to Father A. Zikomankhani, executive director of Human Life International (HLI) Malawi.
FPAM is a non-governmental organization established in 1999 and affiliated with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). Operating in 19 districts across Malawi's three regions, FPAM maintains that its "vision is to have a Malawian society with access to quality and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information and services," according to its website.
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Zikomankhani, who claimed to have spoken with the head teacher at Natola, said in a statement provided to The Christian Post that HLI Malawi, a Catholic pro-life organization, had been visiting the school and was invited to return just weeks before students kicked the FPAM representatives out of the classroom.
“We’ve been teaching them about chastity, along with the dangers of using contraception and the dangers of abortion,” Zikomankhani said of his organization's work with the Natola students.
“To the surprise of everybody, the students at Natola refused the abortion promoters sent to teach them and chased them away,” Zikomankhani continued. “The teacher was sure that it was due to what he called the ‘good pro-life message’ that Human Life International has been sharing with the students.”
The young students reportedly torched the boxes of condoms and other contraceptives that FPAM attempted to distribute to them.
“It is encouraging to hear that these students are embracing the culture of life,” Zikomankhani said. “The Natola teacher told me that since Human Life International first began visiting the school, none of the girls there have gotten pregnant, and that’s a fact he attributes to the pro-life education that Human Life International has been supplying.”
The Christian Post has reached out to IPPF for comment on the reported incident at Natola. This article will be updated if a comment is received.
Malawi, whose population is 98% religious, has some of the world's most stringent abortion restrictions, with the procedure only being permitted in medical emergencies. From 2015 to 2019, there were approximately 866,000 pregnancies in the country annually, of which 491,000 pregnancies were unintended and 134,000 ended in abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
In 2021, Zikomankhani and HLI Malawi played a role in opposing what they described as a "secret" attempt by legislators in the National Assembly of Malawi to pass a bill loosening abortion restrictions.
"Human Life International will be there in those legislative discussions to fight on behalf of life," the organization told CP in a statement. "And the worldwide pro-life authority will continue visiting schools like Natola Secondary School in Malawi to foster a culture of life and warn against the dangers being promoted and deceptions practiced by the global abortion lobby."
