Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 22, 1993 TAG: 9308230269
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Meantime, explosive population growth continues apace. According to the lastest U.N. projections, world population will reach 10 billion by about 2030 and double again by 2150. Only 60 years ago, the global population was 2 billion.
The Clinton administration is setting out to ensure that the United States takes a lead in addressing problems related to population growth. This is a much-needed change from the policies of the past two Republican administrations in Washington.
One sign of the change: President Clinton's decision to end a restriction that denied U.S. funds to family-planning organizations that engaged in any abortion-related activities. Another is his administration's decision to contribute to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.
The United States has refused to contribute to this fund because of reports that the People's Republic of China, one of its beneficiaries, uses coercion in its population-control efforts.
Any coercion is reprehensible. But the effect of U.S. policy to this point has been to deny much-needed help to 140 nations served by the fund, none of which has control over Chinese population policy.
One need only look back at the boatloads of Haitian refugees that arrived on U.S. shores - or the throngs of starving Somalis that greeted U.S. troops - to understand that, insulated as the United States is from the poverty of underdeveloped nations, it is not free from its consequences.
Nor is it free from responsibility for doing something about it.
The administration hasn't determined yet how much the United States should contribute to the U.N. fund, or what conditions should be placed on the contributions. There certainly should, and will, be some.
First on a list of American population-policy objectives - outlined by Timothy E. Wirth, U.S. representative to planning meetings for the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development - is "ensuring that couples and individuals have the ability to exercise their right to determine freely and responsibly the size of their families."
That goes for choosing to have children, and choosing not to.
This is more than a simple women's-rights issue. It is imperative for women to have control over childbearing in order to live healthy, productive lives. This means access to proper health care, effective contraception and safe abortions.
There is a broader, equally urgent need, though, to help all the nations of the world bring their population growth under control.
Even developed nations have cause to encourage responsible family planning. While they account for only 25 percent of the world's population, their people consume 75 percent of its raw materials and create a like amount of its waste.
This unequal distribution, coupled with the uncontrolled population growth of poorer nations, helps to create massive migrations of people, like the Haitian refugees, trying simply to get to a place where they can survive and improve their lot.
Even putting immigration aside, there is hardly a domestic issue facing Americans - from unemployment to education, from urban plight to environmental degradation, from family values to energy policy - that isn't touched in some way by population pressures.
It will be difficult to develop a global policy on human reproduction, a most personal choice. But the United States is set on a course to maximize choice. Considering that the world's 5.5 billion population is growing each year by close to 100 million people, and 95 percent of that growth occurs in its poorest countries, this is a wise course.
by CNB