UNFPA’s “State of the World’s Population”
Now that the facts of impending world depopulation are getting harder to ignore, population controllers are increasingly turning to other ideological justifications for their continued calls for more contraception, sterilization and abortion. The latest example of this is the annual report on the “State of the World’s Population” produced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This year’s report, entitled “Lives Together, Worlds Apart: Men and Women in a Time of Change,” uses the problem of “gender inequality” to highlight the “need” for increased population control. Access to “reproductive rights” appears to be, in the mind of UNFPA, the single most important factor in determining whether nations respect the rights of women. Reproductive rights, for UNFPA, includes access to all forms of contraception and abortion on demand, even in nations where there is religious or cultural opposition. The UNFPA’s report is more telling in what it doesn’t say than in what it does. Austin Ruse, of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-Fam), points out that although reproductive rights are mentioned 186 times within the document, “‘clean water’ arguably the single most crucial problem facing women in the developing world, is mentioned only once… Malaria, perhaps the leading killer of African women, gets only a single mention.”
In the final chapter of the report, UNFPA discusses progress that has been made in “working towards a better future,” One example of progress in the area of reproductive health is that “Peru guaranteed the right to choose sterilization as a method of family planning.” Given Peru’s history of coercive sterilization, this hardly sounds like good news. (See PRI Review, January/February 2000) Brazil, Paraguay and Thailand have also liberalized their sterilization laws. Another example of increased access to reproductive health services is the legalization of the oral contraceptive pill in Japan, and “comprehensive abortion legislation” in Cambodia.
If one relies solely on the UNFPA for information on the status of men and women, it would appear that the state of the world’s population is dismal indeed.
(“State of the World Population 2000: Lives Together, World’s Apart,” UNFPA, 20 September 2000; “New UNFPA Report Denigrates Marriage,” Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute Friday Fax, Vol. 3, No. 4, 30 September 2000)
Pakistan Says No to Sex Ed and UNFPA $
The government of Pakistan has rejected a $250 million aid package from the United Nations Population Fund because it would require them to accept UNFPA-controlled classroom sex education in primary schools. The $250 million was to be used for a national education syllabus which would include discussion of the benefits of population control. The Pakistani Health Ministry stated that “The UN official contended that if the children are imparted awareness on small families from an early age, it will help control population growth.” In addition, the package called for the money to be totally controlled by UNFPA because of concerns that previous money for “population welfare projects” was misspent.
(“Pakistan may lose $250 million aid for not agreeing to sex education,” Pakistan Business Recorder, 8 August 2000; “UN Attempts to ‘Buy’ Pakistan and Impost Population Control,” Zenit, 16 August 2000; “UN Offers $250 Mil to Pakistan if Teaches Population Control, CWNews, 9 August 2000)
Too Many People Or Too Few?
The Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP) is confused about population, In several recent editions of their newsletter, JOICFP News, they seem convinced of a continuing need to promote population policies aimed at lowering the birthrate around the world, They offer praise for China’s “successful” one-child policy, and bemoan the fact that the population of the world will grow to 9 billion “which exceeds the capacity of the planet to accommodate it.”
At the same time, they believe the problem within Japan is too few babies. They are scratching their heads to discover a solution to Japan’s low fertility rate. The facts of Japan’s demographic crisis are indisputable — a total fertility rate of l.34 and a population set to peak by 2007. JOICFP thinks the problem is “how to improve conditions for working women so that marriage and children do not stifle their careers.” Government attempts have centered on improving the quality of nursery schools and providing additional childcare options. As long as the attitude remains, however, that children are a burden whose stifling effect should be minimized, it is unlikely the downward spiral of Japan’s population will change.
(JOICFP News, August 2000 and September 2000)
