Population Control

"More children from the fit, less from the unfit -- that is the chief issue of birth control." - Margaret Sanger (Founder of the International Planned Parenthood Federation),The Birth Control Review, May, 1919

Population control is something that we really don't worry too much about in Ireland.

But the demographic future of the world is one that our government, (through funding the UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund), Bill Gates, Ted Turner and the International Planned Parenthood Federation are all getting worked up.

The movement of population control and creating sustainable development for the world is one that we agree with without much thought.

Too many people - not enough food/clean air etc. - bad thing.

Less people - more resources - good thing.

At the risk of sounding like a raging conspiracy theorist - not really. The population of the First World is rapidly decreasing below replacement rate while the population of developing countries is increasing. It is these poor populations, which the West is trying to "help" with family planning and safe motherhood campaigns. These are nice sounding things but in many cases amount to no more than forced abortions with coercive sterilisation and contraception.

The population of the world is not about to mushroom and cause a massive explosion of people as claimed by many since Malthus. These programmes are damaging economic and social growth in these countries, and they are hurting individual families right across the globe.

The amount of personal tragedy implicit in the methods adopted by Western population control and family planning measures beggars belief. One need only look to the infamous one-child policy adopted by China and funded by the UNFPA to see how these misguided programmes are causing much more harm than good.

This is not to say that those interested in reducing the world's population are in to it because they are racist. Many are interested only in keeping their own Western economies safe by ensuring a cheap supply of the natural resources that developing countries are abundant in.

But it is high time that we re-exam these reasons and the programmes that they spawn. We need start to implement real and meaningful measures which work within local customs to improve the health of women and children, to promote their economies and to provide a better standard of living for all.

The inane television programme "Suddenly Susan" illustrated the personal cost of population control measures for me. When Susan learns that her boyfriend was sterilised and that she wants to have children (her biological "tick-tock" is getting louder) he tries to re-assure her by telling her about the good of the planet. She laments "The planet? What about me? What about our children?" (or something)

While it maybe honourable to some to sacrifice our own fertility for the planet, and one is quite entitled to sacrifice whatever they want for Captain Planet, it is morally and ethically wrong to force others to do so, especially when the very premise that it based upon, is false.

Documents on Population Control...

Some of the following documents deal with USAID (United States Agency for International Development) which both runs its own programmes and funds the UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Ireland Aid contributes mostly to UNFPA and the ethos and methodology of USAID, UNFPA and most EU countries is identical.

The Greatest Modern Threat to Genuine Reproductive Freedom From The Feminism and Nonviolence Studies Association Journal Excellent synopsis of the many human rights abuses that are associated with birth/population control policies

Eugenics & Population Control By Mary Meehan

The following essays are from Sophie Aguirre,a economist from Washington who had done extensive research into population. The titles speak for themselves.

Population, Resources and Environment- Why the Focus on Population

Population, Resources, and Environment- A Survey of the Debate

Sustainable Development- Why the Focus on Population

Hindered Growth- The Ideology and Implications of Population Assistance

The Ideology of Population Assistance

Population Assistance and the Need for True Development

The following articles are from The Africa 2000 Media Group. I have included here only a few of their many fantastic resources to give an excellently documented and in-depth look at some population control/demographics issues. Be warned! You will learn that the UNFPA is scarily racist (and we pay for it)

Population Studies - Basic Facts and Theory

What everybody needs to know about population

The Demographic Marginalization of the West

Baobab Press - On Elephants and Tourists and Population Control

BAOBAB PRESS: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

MALTHUS: Guru of Imperialism

Fertility and Poverty

The following deal with population control as an instrument of war. Yet again the word "scary" comes to mind.

Population and National Power: A Demographic Study

Role of Demographics in US Foreign Policy

Population from the Military Perspective

The CIA on the 'Population Threat'

War, Population Control, and Genocide

Poverty, AIDS, and the Condom Solution Some facts about the oversimplified AIDS "endemic".

Propaganda in Theory and Practice

Psychological Warfare Tactics in Population Programs

Population Control: Centrepiece of Imperialist Aggression against the Muslim World

Propaganda and the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo 1994)

Workers as Targets

Setting Sun on the West

When Contraceptives Kill

BBC Horizon: The Human Laboratory (1995) Transcript of this documentary which shows how women of the Third World are used as "lab rats" to test new contraceptives with tragic consequences. I think all contraceptives should carrying a guarantee that they were not tested on impoverished women who were unaware of their dangerous experimental nature and were forced into doing so. More from the Population Research Institute

Eugenics Watch and The X-Files : Xenophobia, Racism, Demographics You will be horrified. (All you need is some Frankenstein music to complete the picture)

UN Pro-life Lobbying From The Human Life Review

WEBSITES

The Africa 2000 Media Group Simply Brilliant!

The Population Research Institute I urge anyone interested in human rights to subscribe to their mailing list.

Sophie Aguirre Superb research and excellent arguments.