Posted By Jennie Chancey on October 7, 2010

For over half a century, the population control movement has waged war on human fertility. Originally a fringe movement driven by fear of a “population explosion,” especially among peoples of color, the movement has over the years gained clout, if not respectability.

Over the decades, the movement has increasingly used the environment as a pretext for its actions. To hear them tell it, all the earth’s real and imagined woes – from too little food and fresh water to too much pollution of air and water – are a result of the same cause: The planet we call home is simply too crowded. The solution to all our collective ills, they say, is to reduce the birth rate….

Birth rates have been in free fall in most of the developed world for some time. Europe as a whole is averaging only about 1.3 children per couple. Russia and some Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, are in even worse shape demographically.

This means that the work force and revenues are shrinking at the same time that elderly citizens are growing in number – and demanding the retirement and health benefits they have long been promised. Those who would reduce our numbers also forget that people are ingenious producers and problem-solvers, not just inert consumers.

Read the entire piece here.

Categories: Hot-Button Issues
Tags: birth control, children, demography