“The biggest problem facing us is that another billion people are born every 13 years,” said John Seager, president and CEO of Population Connection, as he spoke to the April 9 EDC meeting.

John Seager of Population Connection

But his remarks were not gloomy. Rather, he said of world population growth “we know how to fix it, it’s cheap, and people want it.”

The solution, he told the group, is family planning that is available in the undeveloped nations where much of world population growth takes place. It would take, he said, approximately $4.7 Billion per year to do the job well, about the amount spent by the Los Angeles Unified School District. But U.S. government spending on this issue totaled only $461 million per year at the end of the Bush administration, Seager noted. The Obama administration has increased that amount by 18 percent, but it is far from enough. Properly funding family planning could reduce population growth by one-third “right away,” he said.

He mentioned Mexico and Iran as examples of how to do it correctly. Mexico’s birth rate averaged 6.8 children per woman in 1970. An aggressive program has brought that to 2.3 today. (2.1 is the “replacement” rate that would result in a stable population.) He noted that the influx of immigrants to the U.S today from Mexico is the result of the high birth rates of 20 to 30 years ago.

In Iran, a comprehensive program includes a family planning course required before obtaining a marriage license. Older women supervise their neighborhood to see that younger women get to clinics for their family planning supplies. These and other actions have reduced the birth rate in 16 years from five per woman to two.

This serves to demonstrate that no matter the dominant religion, no matter the culture, “no matter where you are in the world, if women have access to contraception, they will use it” Seager said.

It’s all about giving women choices, including education. Higher education and income usually result in a lower birth rate, he noted.

He’s positive because the Obama administration marks such a dramatic change from the policies of the Bush White House. “These are potentially great times for us. I can’t tell you how different the atmosphere in Washington (D.C.) is these days,” he exclaimed. “We have people who really get it, and they really care.”

Our job on the local level is to let our federal representatives and senators know of our support for family planning funding and policies that encourage population control.

Get more information on Population Connection at www.populationconnection.org.