Reproductive Politics

It is, according to the Population Research Institute  (PRI), a pro-life organization "which works to end coercive population control, and fight the myth of overpopulation which fuels it." The current president of PRI is Steven W. Mosher , a well-known pro-life activist who cut his teeth exposing and protesting the problems of China's one-child policy, in particular forced abortion. As I pointed out in an earlier post , the idea that there is no population problem is one of the pro-life 'narratives' that crops up all over the place. Here is the first of six videos in a PRI-produced series (for the complete series, visit the video series home page ): So let's look at the major assertions: The population scare prompted the creation of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Those who support population control are the "haves" trying to wipe out the undesirable "have nots." The world population will peak in a 30 years or so and then start ...

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) recently released its 2012 "State of World Population" report. Consistent with decades of evidence, it reaffirms and emphasizes that family planning-- the ability of a family to control the number and timing of the children it has-- is fundamental to the economic vitality, development, and stability of a society. Narrowly conceived, "family planning" is control over pregnancy-- i.e., access to and use of effective contraceptives. As the report notes, however, family planning is only one of a "broad range of services [that] must be provided to ensure sexual and reproductive health": primary care as well as antenatal care, safe delivery and post-natal care; prevention and appropriate treatment of infertility; management of the consequences of unsafe abortion; treatment of reproductive tract infections; prevention, care and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS; information, education a...