[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 21, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E357-E358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  INTERNATIONAL POPULATION ASSISTANCE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. SAM GEJDENSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 21, 2000

  Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, soon we will be debating one of the most 
important foreign policy questions to come before the House this 
session--international population assistance.
  This is a very important matter that will directly affect the quality 
of life of individuals and families around the world. It deserves 
careful attention by all Members. A recent issue of the magazine 
Insight included an article by Warner Fornos, the President of the 
Population Institute, that discusses this issue. The Population 
Institute is a nonprofit organization that seeks to bring the world's 
population into balance with our resource base and environment through 
equitable and voluntary means.
  I believe the article by Mr. Fornos makes points that should be 
considered in the upcoming appropriations debates. As a result, I am 
including it in the Record for the benefit of all Members.

               [From the Insight magazine, Jan. 31, 2000]

 Question: Should Population Control Be a Priority for the Third World?


 Yes: Vanishing Forests and Widespread Famines Are Signs of Crisis in 
                              Many Nations

                           (By Warner Fornos)

       The term ``population control'' has an unfortunate and 
     misleading connotation. ``Control'' seems to infer force and 
     coercion, which I categorically oppose on moral and ethical 
     grounds. My opposition goes beyond mere semantics. There are 
     those who would have us believe that all population and 
     family-planning programs are rooted in force and coercion; 
     that simply is untrue. At least some of those who peddle that 
     particular bill of goods are snake-oil salesmen who know 
     better or should.
       Fertility rates have declined during the last 40 years, 
     from six children per woman to slightly less than three. 
     Anyone who honestly thinks that this is the result of force 
     and coercion simply does not understand human nature of the 
     limitations on the ability of governments to make people do--
     or, perhaps in this case, not do--something against their 
     will. The magnitude of the power that would have to be 
     exercised to influence the most personal of decisions so 
     successfully during the last four decades simply defies the 
     imagination.
       Voluntary family-planning information, education and 
     services should be universally available and accessible. 
     According to the United Nations, there are some 350 million 
     couples throughout the world who lack access to, or the means 
     to acquire, modern contraceptives. An estimated 120 million 
     of those couples would use safe and effective family-planning 
     methods immediately if they were available. The Population 
     Institute strives for universal access to a variety of 
     family-planning methods.
       In the last year, world population surpassed the 6 billion 
     mark. World population is growing annually by nearly 80 
     million
       There are a number of environmentalists who can produce 
     voluminous scientific data to demonstrate that our planet 
     already has exceeded its sustainable limits. Just for 
     starters, they point to such chilling statistics as the 
     following: 1.3 billion people live in absolute poverty on the 
     equivalent of one U.S. dollar or less per day, 1.5 billion 
     people lack access to an adequate supply of clean water and 
     790 million people go to bed hungry every night.
       There are those who say that poverty, hunger and water 
     issues really are social, economic, technological and 
     political problems--not population problems. Certainly 
     politics, economics and technology all fit into the poverty/
     hunger/misery equation, but when you see abandoned children 
     begging for a scrap of bread in the streets of Lagos, 
     Nigeria, or Lahore, India, or Lima, Peru, can anyone deny 
     that these are children whose parents were unable to care for 
     them? And think back to the 350 million couples who are 
     unable to regulate their own fertility because they lack 
     access to, or the means to obtain, family-planning 
     information, education and services.
       Almost from the inception of the development of national 
     family-planning programs some 40 to 45 years ago, the 
     argument surfaced that there must first be economic stability 
     before there can be a smaller-family-size norm. And, 
     generally speaking, industrialized countries do tend to have 
     fertility rates that are lower than those in less-developed 
     countries.
       I am a strong believer in the free-market system, though I 
     have never been convinced that capitalism is the best 
     contraceptive. But those who believe development must precede
       Pronatalists seem to view the Earth through a peculiar 
     prism that blocks out human activity as a factor in forests 
     vanishing, water scarcity, topsoil erosion, desert expansion, 
     unprecedented global climate change and diminishing finite 
     resources.
       There is, however, a preponderance of solid evidence to 
     refute claims that population growth no longer is a 
     significant issue. For example, while world population 
     climbed by 75 percent in the 20th century, an estimated 75 
     percent of global forested area was lost--much of it for 
     living space, farmland and firewood, which still is the 
     leading source of cooking and heating fuel in the developing 
     world. In addition:
       Nearly half a billion people around the world face water 
     shortages and, by 2025, the number is expected to grow to 2.8 
     billion--35 percent of the projected world population of 8 
     billion for that year.
       The 15 warmest years on record have occurred during the 
     last 21 years and all major scientific bodies acknowledge 
     that climate change now is under way. According to the 
     International Panel on Climate Change, a two-thirds reduction 
     in global carbon-dioxide emissions would be required to avoid 
     a doubling of atmospheric concentrations that may jeopardize 
     food production, the Earth's biodiversity and entire 
     ecosystems, as well as human health.
       The U.S. Department of Agriculture notes that since the 
     mid-20th century the world's population has soared by 132 
     percent, while the world's cropland has increased by only 19 
     percent.
       Complications relating to pregnancy and childbirth are 
     among the leading causes of mortality among reproductive-age 
     women in many parts of the developing world. Nearly 600,000 
     women die each year of pregnancy-related causes--about one 
     every minute--99 percent of them in developing countries.
       An estimated 160 million children today are considered to 
     be malnourished. A recent report by the International Food 
     Policy Research Institute estimates that 20 years from now 
     the number of malnourished will decline to 135 million--a 
     decrease of only 15 percent.
       Ten million children died before reaching their fifth 
     birthday in 1998, and nearly 8 million of them did not reach
       Thirty million new jobs must be found each year for the 
     next 50 years in order to keep pace with projected population 
     growth, according to a special report by the Worldwatch 
     Institute.
       At the 1994 International Conference on Population and 
     Development, or ICPD, 179 nations approved the Cairo Program 
     of Action, a blueprint for preventing world population from 
     doubling again as it has in the

[[Page E358]]

     last 40 years. To achieve a sustainable future, it is 
     important to implement the Cairo document--especially in the 
     areas of ensuring universal access to family planning; 
     achieving greater male responsibility in sexual and 
     reproductive behavior and parenthood; and eradicating female 
     illiteracy and increasing employment opportunities for women, 
     both of which would lead to gender equality and smaller 
     family size.
       They key to implementing the ICPD Program for Action is the 
     mobilization of resources for population and family planning 
     programs. It appears unlikely that the ICPD goal of raising 
     $17 billion for reproductive-health and family-planning 
     activities by this year will be reached. According to a 
     report by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, the 
     consequences of the failure to meet this goal include: an 
     estimated additional 42 million unintended pregnancies, 17 
     million induced abortions and 90,000 maternal deaths.
       By cutting back on its international population assistance 
     from nearly $600 million in fiscal 1995 to $385 million in 
     the current fiscal year, the U.S. government has ill-served 
     the cause of stabilizing world population. As the world's 
     only remaining superpower, the United States has abrogated 
     its leadership in one of the most crucial issues of our time. 
     The result has been a domino effect, with other nations 
     choosing to follow the U.S. lead and reduce their population-
     assistance budgets. There is a ray of hope that the situation 
     will change. The White House has signaled that it will seek 
     to restore U.S. International population spending to its 
     fiscal 1995 level of nearly $600 million. Additionally, 
     Congress, after failing to appropriate any contribution at 
     all to the U.N. Fund for Population Activities in fiscal 
     1999, has voted to contribute $25 million to the fund in 
     fiscal 2000 and again in fiscal 2001.
       In the final analysis, it is the childbearing decisions of 
     3 billion young people--who will reach their reproductive 
     years within the next generation--that ultimately will 
     determine whether world population will level off at the 
     lowest possible figure that can be reached through voluntary 
     family planning and humane interventions. At stake will be 
     the kind of world they want for themselves and their 
     children.

     

                          ____________________