Abortion, Sterilization, Contraception, Female Discrimination … Tools For Population Control
By Louis Petrone
You will find the contents of this column hard to believe.
The topic involves population control. An innocent term on its face. Fearful in its application.
The United States has a federal agency titled Office of Population Affairs. It is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Population Affairs is misleading. The agency name would be more honorably represented were it Office of Population Control.
It is the lead U.S. agency for family planning, reproductive health care services and research. Its specified purpose is to control or reduce the size of the U.S. population.
The agency was created by and has been funded by Congress since 1970.
Under the guise of family planning, the agency is pro-abortion, pro-sterilization and pro-contraception. In pursuit of stemming population growth, the agency is concerned and plans for the day when Mother Earth will not be able to support and feed a too large population.
The agency has a Family Planning Clinic. One of its purposes is to rid women of unintended pregnancies.
The agency program is wrought with female discrimination. It requires parents to exercise reproductive responsibility. No more than a legally permitted number of children. One or two, as the law allows.
Forced sterilization is invoked at the time the legal number of children has been arrived at. The woman would be sterilized immediately following the birth of the prescribed number. It is recognized a man could obtain a vasectomy. A vasectomy is economically cheaper than female sterilization. However, the program also recognizes men are generally reluctant to engage in such procedures. As opposed to women who take them in stride.
Another form of suggested sterilization could occur at female puberty. A long term sterilizing capsule would be placed under a girl’s skin. It would remain until official permission was obtained to conceive a child.
Some high ranking scientists support most if not all of what has been reported thus far.
A top scientific adviser to President Obama is John P. Holdren. He recommends limiting population growth by breaking down the world into geographical areas. Each area would be permitted only a specified number of births/people.
Holdren believes “compulsory population-control laws,” including abortion, could be Constitutionally sustained if overpopulation became so severe as to endanger society.
John Ehrlich was one of Bush 2’s scientific advisers. He believed that only that number of births which could be sustained by the Earth should be permitted. His birth control position was best exemplified when he said… “Nobody, in my view, has the right to have 12 children or even 3, unless the second pregnancy is twins.”
I became intrigued with the issue as developed herein after reading an excellent piece by the investigative reporter Michael Snyder. I have mentioned him before. He is top shelf. A guest post of his regarding the Office of Population Affairs appeared at Blacklistednews.com on 8/31/14. The article started me digging.
There is not much on the issue in simple easy to understand English. Statutory and regulatory language abounds. What is supposedly straight forward information in easy to understand English generally clouds or says nothing. The work of the agency is clothed in flowery language.
I am confused. We have a major continuing war in our country over the issue of abortion. The conservatives in the House of Representatives are generally anti-abortion. Contraception has become an issue via Obamacare and two recent Supreme Court decisions. Female discrimination re their bodies and sexual rights is ongoing. Merely recall the comments of some Congressmen over the past several years. Sterilization is not an up front issue…yet.
I cannot understand how Congressmen can fight like hell in opposition to funding for abortions and contraception, and at the same time vote yearly to fund the Office of Population Affairs. It takes money to run the agency. All budgetary items begin with favorable passage by the House of Representatives.
A startling inconsistency exists. No to all abortion and certain contraception fundings. Yes to funding an agency that supports pro-abortion, pro-sterilization and pro-contraception activities.
Considerable dollars are involved. The budget for the Office of Population Affairs from 2011-2014 was $280 million to $298 million.
What’s going on?
I suspect most Congressmen in many instances do not know what they are voting for. Probably neither they nor their staffs have read the legislation. On the other hand, if read perhaps they do not understand what they are reading. I reference you to my comment re flowery language. Whatever, the positions are grossly in opposition.
The United Nations has an organization known as the United Nations Population Fund. The Fund supports government programs which promote forced abortions and coercive sterilizations. Presidents Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2 refused to permit American dollars to support the Fund. Bush 2 refused even after Congress had allocated the funds.
President Obama took office in January 2009. That same month, he permitted the funding to be restored. It was represented at the time that the United States had joined with 180 other donor nations to “…reduce poverty, improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV/AIDS and provide family planning assistance to women in 154 countries.”
Why? Did Obama’s people inadvertently inform him? Did they read the refunding proviso? Did they understand? Did the issue of a United Nation funding which 154 other countries supported look like a good thing to join in on without comprehending the true impact of the Fund’s work? Or … perhaps the President knew what he was doing.
I don’t know and it concerns me. Just as the activities of the Office of Population Affairs concern me.
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What is often overlooked in discussion of population control, even voluntary population control, is the fact that limiting births leads to an “aging society,” one where the elderly outnumber the young. In such a society, there are insufficient young and able people to care for the aged and those at the end of life can be neglected. It’s a delicate balance to maintain between limiting the number of inhabitants on our already-stressed planet and taking care of the people who already dwell here.