Population growth: Is there an answer?
Bill sparks controversy
ZERO POPULA
TION GROWTH or
zero population
control?
That’s the issue
before Congress in
the form of "The
Global Resources,
Environment and Population Act of
1981," a bill introduced last month by
Sen Mark Hatfield. R-Ore., that calls for
analysis of the relationship between
world population and world resources
Conflict is only beginning — between
Zero Population Growth adherents and
the American Life Lobby — over Hat
field’s bill The act would establish an
interagency council to recommend to
the president national population
policies promoting national and global
population stabilization
ZPG and the World Population Society
commend Hatfield for preparing and
introducing the bill into the Senate They
say the bill is a major step torward solving
world overpopulation.
Not so. says Judy Brown, ALL execu
tive director "There are a multitude of
reasons for opposing this bill,” she says
But the bill has received support from a
variety of senators and organizations,
says Dick Granger. Hatfield's legislative
assistant on energy and natural re
sources
"It doesn’t cost the country any mon
ey, and it doesn't add to the workforce It
will get the president to study the prob
lems that we've got and it won't cost a
cent."
GRANGER SAYS ONCE the public is
informed about the global population
situation, the bill will receive even more
support
"It's one of those issues that take a
while to get off the ground People need
to realize that the world population is
growing exponentially, and resources
are not "
National security is threatened by the
increase in population within the United
States, Granger says
"Events like the assasination of
(Egyptian) Pres (Anwar) Sadat can have
immediate effect on our energy supply
It's simple to understand that the more
people that you have, the more energy
you use,” says Granger
"We haven't received one letter of
opposition to the bill," he says "We re
taking it one step at a time There's
usually some opposition to any bill, but
we think this one has got a lot going for
it."
The ALL doesn't agree The group —
the only one now opposing the bill —
says Congress should stay away from the
messy side effects of population control
"Our job is to make sure all of the
members of Congress realize that there
is some opposition to this piece of legis
lation Our side will be heard in this
issue," Brown says
"Ultimately, issues like abortion will be
involved," says Brown "Other things,
like sterilizing Spanish women without
their consent and using (contraceptive)
drugs that have been banned in the U S
could be involved also
"We believe the U S should be con
cerned with helping the underdeveloped
nations through the production of food,
not through wiping out their popula
tions," she says
ROBERT SASSONE, AN attorney on
the ALL board of directors, checks the
population figures used by ZPG and
similar groups Much of the data con
cerning poulation and resources used by
Congress is wrong, and some of it may
have been fabricated, Sassone says
“They are utilizing the same statistical
errors that the ZPG people have been
using for years,” says Sassone He
claims that some departments within the
government have been allocated extra
funds by increasing the numbers on their
population data
"It enables the rich to get richer, if it's
used properly And baby, it's used
properly," he says
Supporters of the bill say overpopula
tion is a direct cause of a large number of
people starving Sassone says
overpopulation has nothing to do with
starvation
"They’re not starving because of a
lack of food production," says Sassone
People in Third World countries are
starving because of mismanagement of
food resources, he says
"It's so easy to stop starvation For 1
percent of the U S budget we could stop
the world's starvation, if it were properly
used," he says
Sassone says the opposition to Hat
field's bill may be slight, but it will proba
bly be enough to stop the bill from pass
ing through Congress
"I don’t think we'll have to do much
My first inclination is to just ignore it,
because it will probably go away," he
says
Carol Baker disagrees The executive
director of Zero Population Growth says
the bill will be passed through Congress
without much opposition
"It's really a historic occasion." says
Baker "We couldn’t be more pleased
with Hatfield's bill It's going to do more
than )ust help sustain a higher quality of
life,” she says "If the U S sets up a
national population policy, it will help to
give us stature and credibility worldwide
Baker says the council set up by the bill
would not have the authority to impose
any kind of restrictions on Third World
nations
“WE ARE NOT at the point of talking
about mechanisms to control population
yet," says Baker "This bill is simply to
, analyze growth and resources within the
nation and the rest of the world "
Imposing taxes on large families may
be necessary in the future to discourage
further growth, she adds
"This country needs to neutralize its
incentives for having children ” says
Baker "There may come a time when we
will be forced to use economic disincen
tives to discourage growth We are not
too far from the day when we will have to
make the same decision that China did "
China withdraws health, food, space
and work benefits from couples who
have more than one child
Frank Oram, the executive director of
the World Population Society, says
Hatfield's bill will help American busi
nesses
"American businessmen consider it a
high risk to invest in other countries that
have high populations, because these
countries tend to have unstable govern
ments," says Oram
"THIS IS PROBABLY the most impor
tant piece of legislation put through
Congress in a very long time.” he says
“It deals with the future, with the ob|ec
tive being to plan our own society Sen
Hatfield has shown incredible foresight "
"The United States has no policy con
cerning population We have never come
to realize in this country the impact of
global overpopulation,” he says
Story by Chris Courtnier
Miahtv_
HeanGffien
BIG NiQiJTH from
Mickey's Molt Liquor
1981 G HEILEMAN BREWING COMPANY, INC LACROSSE WISCONSIN AND OTHER CITIES LPC
Graphic by Man DaPungi
ORLD
America
1981 -254
-286
PULATION
(in millions) • = 43 million people
C.1981 - 4,492
C.200Q — 6,095
_A
Sources
Population Reference Bureau Inc Washington D C
MO-PING Food tor Everyone Medard Gabel Anchor Booh ’979
R Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion Sky-Ocean World Map d967
Sociologist worries
about population bill
Although
this country
needs a
population
policy, the bill
introduced by
US. Sen
Mark Hatlfield, R-Ore , could
create problems, says a Univer
sity sociology professor
"The bill is very comprehen
sive It's awesome in scope,’’
says Lawrence Carter, Univer
sity sociology professor "What
bothers me is something it might
be masking ”
"The Global Resources, En
vironment and Population Act of
1981" could have implications
beyond the establishment of a
population council, he says
Carter says the bill doesn't
cover many of the problems
faced in overpopulated areas.
"This bill is focusing on the
population, environment, and
resources," Carter says "It
seems to me the major problems
are made socially, economical
ly, and politically.
"What really seems to be the
problem is the distribution of
food," Carter says "Maldis
tribution of food resources
within the government is re
sponsible for food shortages.
"One-quarter of the world's
populations consumes one
third of all food resources
Evidence seems to show the
developed countries are still
going to be the greatest con
sumers at the turn of the cen
tury,” Carter says.
Studies show that people in
the third-world countries are
moving into more developed
areas, Carter says
“A migration of this kind can
be socially and culturally dis
abling both for those migrating
and for the country that receives
them.”
Story by Chris Courtnler
Population controls threaten human rights
Coercive sterilization, the dis
tribution of dangerous contraceptives
and other population controls attack
women's rights, says a University
doctoral student in sociology
"I don't believe in any mass con
trol of women's reproductive rights I
do believe in women having access to cheap, safe birth
control, and I believe that's very different from popula
tion control,' says Sharon Claeyssens, who studiesand
lectures on population control
Puerto Rico, where sterilization is pushed as the
ideal form of birth control, is an example of a territory
that practices population control
"People who live there think it's strange that an
island which loses so much of its population in migra
tion to the United States would have been targeted for
population control, and it has the longest running
program in the world,” Ciaeyssens says
More than one third — 37 percent — of Puerto Rican
women between 14 and 44 years old have been ster
ilized since the program s inception, she says Ster
ilization is the only form of birth control that is free
because doctors are reimbursed for sterilization
operations, primarily through United States health and
welfare funds
ki addition, birth control pills and lUDs were tested
in Puerto Rico "Some women there died as a result of
those experiments," she says
The United States also practices coercive popula
tion control, Claeyssens says Some black women in the
South have been told they would lose their welfare or be
refused medical treatment if they refused sterilization
after their second child, she says
Native Americans, Claeyssens says, also have been
subjected to similar treatment At least 25 percent of
American Indian women have been sterilized, and in
some tribes 80 percent of the tribe's women have been
sterilized, dooming that tribe to extinction
"It upsets me because it's against reproductive
rights It upsets me because it's genocidal
Claeyssens says certain subgroups are targeted for
population control — poor people and colored people —
and as long as there are no federal guidelines against it,
it will continue at the local level
"It's very important to distinguish between
population control and reproductive rights When
contraceptives in only certain forms are introduced on a
large scale to a targeted group, that is population
-■ ' r
control, that is social Darwinism, that is social engin
eering."
Outside of the United States, many birth control
products banned here are still being used for popula
tion control, Claeyssens says
For example, the Agency for International
Development was challenged about deaths resulting
from their distribution of Daikon Shields, an IUD The
manufacturer, A H Robins Co., sold unsterilized Dai
kon Shields to AID at a 48-percent discount The
sterilized version of this birth control device was
determined to be dangerous and was banned in the
United States Use of the Daikon Shields abroad result
ed in a number of pelvic infections and subsequent
deaths, Claeyssens says
"The whole zero population growth movement is
not too far removed from Malthusian ideology,''
Claeyssens says Thomas Malthus, a British writer living
at the end of the 18th century, thought the poor brought
their misery upon themselves by overproducing and
therefore increasing competition for scarce jobs
"One might say we should provide more jobs for
poor people Instead, Malthusians say poor people
should not reproduce as much as other people There
by we target Third World countries, which are the poor
countries of the world, as the people who should not be
reproducing themselves "
Although the Third World has a larger proportion of
the world's population, it consumes about 10 percent of
the world's resources, Claeyssens says The United
States holds a much smaller population but consumes
proportionately much more of the world's resources
“We need to concentrate more on the redistribu
tion of resources and if we are concerned about the
environment, as the ZPG people say they are, then we
should be concerned more about what the industrial
countries are doing to the environment because they
have much more potential to destroy the environment
than overpopulation."
The recipients of population control — Third World
women, minority and poor women in the United States
- are anything but helped, Claeyssens says. They lose
their “reproductive freedom" in countries where ster
ilization is pushed and where other forms of birth
control are dangerous
"I am a champion of reproductive rights I do not
believe that women’s rights to control their bodies are
sanctioned under population control.”
Story by Ron Hunt
1
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