Parliamentary Committee calls for Population Control

Background briefing: if this becomes Government policy, we will call for lobbying. The findings of the Committee derive from ideology rather than facts; many of the most fast-growing economies have fast-growing populations (such as Morocco); the growth of many other developing countries is threatened by falling birth rates (such as Korea); aggessive population control measures in China and India, including forced abortions and sterilisations, have led to appalling social consequences, including serious gender imbalances in the population. The fact that at a certain stage of development fertility tends to drop spontaneously (due to later marriages, for example) lends spurious support for the Committee's key claim, quoted: "No country has ever raised itself out of poverty without stabilising population growth." This obviously proves nothing.


From SPUC: A British parliamentary group has concluded that the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are "difficult or impossible to meet" without curbing population growth. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health will publish a report later this month claiming that high birth rates result in poorer infant nutrition, higher risk of death in pregnancy and childbirth and less chance of receiving education, as well as impacting on the environment. Richard Ottaway, MP, the group's vice-chairman, recommended increased sexual education for women and easy access to birth control. He said: "No country has ever raised itself out of poverty without stabilising population growth. And the MDGs are going to be difficult or impossible to attain without a levelling out of population growth in developing countries...We have the solution; it's not that difficult. The question is, will we go for it?" [BBC News, 8 December]