Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 6, 1993                   TAG: 9305060470
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-16   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CROWD CONTROL

It was OK to cut off U.S. funding for any international family-planning organization that so much as mentioned the word abortion, his advisers told him, because population growth in the poorest countries would actually stimulate their economic development. More people, more consumers.

Never mind the pain and suffering of millions of children brought into the world to starve because their lands are wracked by overpopulation. Never mind the costs to struggling economies - and to individuals' freedom, potential and health - when women undergo pregnancy after pregnancy after pregnancy from puberty to menopause.

The fact is that Reagan - and, after him, George Bush - helped increase world overpopulation and misery by a policy intended to curry favor with anti-abortion forces here at home.

Ironically, this policy probably encouraged, rather than discouraged, abortions in other countries, because it effectively diminished and denied family-planning information and services. Some of those abortions were illegal butcher jobs in which pregnant women lost their lives.

In January, President Clinton signaled that he would end the spiteful restriction on U.S. funds being used for worldwide family-planning programs that may counsel on abortions or pay for the procedures. More recently, he has asked Congress to renew funding for international population-control programs sponsored by such organizations as the United Nations.

This is not merely the compassionate thing to do for citizens of other countries. It is in America's long-term interest to stabilize the number of inhabitants that must compete for food, land and space on this small planet. Unless that stabilization comes, the population - now at 5.5 billion - is expected to grow to an out-of-control 12- to 15 billion by the year 2050.

President Dwight Eisenhower was right when he warned that failure to support international family planning "would limit the expectation of future generations to abject poverty and suffering and bring down upon us history's condemnation." Clinton is right to restore support for family planning.