GLOBE EDITORIAL
Population progressTHE 2004 United Nations report on population and development emphasizes the circular nature of global poverty. There is no linear cause-and-effect between rapid population growth and poverty, ill health, or ignorance, the report suggests. Rather, poverty both perpetuates and is exacerbated by poor maternal health, gender discrimination, and lack of access to birth control.
In 1994, a ground-breaking conference in Cairo established that alleviating poverty in the world is linked to women's rights and reproductive health. This holistic view of global development has helped slow the increase in world population, currently at 6.4 billion. The average family size has declined from six children in 1960 to around three today. But averages mask the fact that population pressures are deeply concentrated in the poorest countries. Although the world's population is expected to grow by 39 percent over the next 45 years, births in the 50 poorest nations are estimated to rise by 228 percent. A third of women in those countries get no medical attention at all during pregnancy. Education and improved health for women are central, but access to contraception is still a vital part of the quest for a more sustainable world. Smaller families are healthier families with more resources to improve the prospects of each generation. Whether it is hunger, illiteracy, or the AIDS epidemic, available contraception is crucial. According to the report, 201 million couples still do not have access to contraception. If those couples could practice family planning, the United Nations estimates that 22 million abortions, 142,000 pregnancy-related deaths, and 1.4 million infant deaths each year could be prevented. At a cost of $3.9 billion -- about $180 per preventable abortion -- the benefits seem unassailable. And yet the self-described right-to-life movement has obstructed the UN's plan at every turn. In the United States, the Bush administration, professing concern that the UN's population fund supports abortion, has frozen America's contribution for three years running -- even though a 1973 law expressly prohibits any US money from being used for abortion services overseas. Despite such blind resistance, there have been substantial improvements since 1994. More women have access to education and other rights, including political participation. Early-marriage traditions are being opposed as a health risk for young girls. Most countries have adopted laws prohibiting violence against women, female genital mutilation, and other violations of human rights, and more countries are working to enforce these laws.
The United States ought to place itself firmly on the side of this progress. But first it must remove its willful blinders. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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