Western countries have had a history of less than ethical techniques to reduce population growth in developing countries. Contraception and sterilization were often forcibly deployed as technical solutions to reduce birthrates, without concern for the individuals receiving the treatment. With over 7 billion people and counting, many environmentalists remain adamant that we need immediate measures to reduce global population growth rates. The solutions are not straightforward, however, and despite much talk of empowering women to be in control of their own fertility, the reality of the situation on the ground is quite different.
Coercion has been seen in India, where poor women from disadvantaged communities are being forcibly sterilized. In other cases, incentives are being offered: In the city of Satara, couples are offered $100 to wait to have their first child, while in Rajasthan, women are offered cell phones and a chance to win a car if they agree to be sterilized. Many more women are not offered a choice of contraceptive method. Instead, long-acting methods such as injectables or implants are being prescribed without regard to the needs or risks to the individual woman. For instance, Depo Provera has been the main method of contraception pushed by health and family programs in Africa, but numerous studies have found that use of this contraceptive increases the risk of contracting the HIV virus, potentially doubling the rate of infection.
Despite this controversy, Depo and a Chinese hormonal implant are the two main contraceptives promoted by the Gate’s Foundation in their recently announced $4 billion family planning initiative in partnership with the British government. The aim is to help 120 million poor women to gain access to modern birth control methods and increase research into new contraceptives but a number of well-respected international organizations—such as the Center for Reproductive Rights and Amnesty International—issued a statement of criticism calling for a focus on human health and pointing out the danger of returning to forced contraceptive methods.
The term “population justice” has been adopted to embody the need for a more balanced and ethical approach to population control, one that respects both women’s rights and the planet’s resource capacity. While it is clear that we are using the Earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate, the cause of this is not simply population growth, and it is unfair to blame disadvantaged women for this environmental degradation. If we really want to control the population, why not make all men go through with this easy and fully effective procedure?
Check out the Making Contact radio program below for a more in-depth discussion of the history of population control, the current problems, the potential solutions, and the ever-present controversy. The following program features Lauri Mazur, author of A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice, and the Environmental Challenge; Jade Sasser, Loyola Marymount University women’ studies professor; Elizabeth Barajas-Roman, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health policy director; and Ben Zuckerman, former Sierra Club board member. It was produced through funding from the Mary Wohlford Foundation.
[audio:http://www.radioproject.org/sound/2012/MakingCon_120620_Ax.mp3]
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Main image credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Audio credit: National Radio Project