THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Many of the worst ills afflicting the developing world are only symptoms.
To a significant extent, poverty, violence, political repression and instability, environmental decline, plague and famine are effects. The common cause is uncontrolled population growth. And the United States is on the wrong side of the issue.
The numbers tell a stark tale. In 1960, there were 3 billion people on Earth. Today, we approach 6 billion. In another 30 years, if nothing is done, there will be more than 6 billion in Africa and Asia alone.
In the developing world today, 40 percent of the population is under 15. As these young people enter their childbearing years, a new round of population growth will be unleashed. Widespread misery will result.
Already, 600 million women in developing countries are living in poverty. A like number want family-planning help and can't get it. Each day, 1,500 women die from complications of unwanted pregnancies and abortions.
For many years, there was bipartisan support in the United States for family-planning aid that developing countries desperately want. Both Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson, for instance, thought family-planning aid for the Third World was money well-spent.
The American people are still in favor. Polling by the Gallup organization shows that 80 percent of Americans believe in the teaching and practice of family planning. And 84 percent favor the supplying of family-planning aid to developing countries by industrialized nations.
Yet such aid is being blocked in Congress. Those organized against family-planning fight it on the basis of disinformation. First, it is argued that family-planning aid forces abortions on women in the Third World.
In fact, if family-planning supplies and education are available, the demand for abortions is reduced. That's why Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., a longtime pro-life legislator, is also a leading advocate of family-planning assistance.
Second, it is argued that we are running a huge deficit because of all the foreign aid we hand out, therefore we can't afford family-planning assistance. In reality, all foreign aid amounts to only about 1 percent of the federal budget. Family-planning assistance comes to less than one-tenth of 1 percent.
In a real sense, we can't afford not to supply such aid. If Third World population grows unchecked, we aren't immune from the consequences. We will face mounting immigration pressure, a degrading environment, a less-stable world.
Yet Congress in January cut funding by 80 percent for 1996. Hatfield and other senators are fighting to restore the money. Sen. John Warner voted against the aid. Sen. Chuck Robb voted in favor.
There are many votes in Congress, but for the long-term safety, stability and decency of the world, few are more important than these. Providing aid for voluntary family planning to the developing world offers a slim hope that it really will get a chance to develop. Failing to supply such aid can only hasten an immense human tragedy. by CNB