VOLUME 57 | ISSUE 2 | June 2025
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One Small Organization in Nepal Makes a Huge Difference for Women and Girls
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The outlook for women and girls in western Nepal looks better than it once did, thanks in part to our Global Partner in that country: the Rural Women’s Development and Unity Center (RUWDUC). The work the 30-year-old organization is doing to change norms and traditions that harm women and girls is having a profound and positive effect on the lives of historically marginalized people in Nepal.
This issue also covers a recent survey we commission to learn more about Americans' family size preferences and thoughts about declining birth rates. The overall takeaway? The survey results suggest that most Americans have a preference for small families, which needs to be acknowledged by policymakers seeking to blindly increase the birth rate for the sake of the economy — especially given all of the policy levers that could be (but haven’t been) implemented in order to maintain a healthy economy.
Click through below to read the featured articles of the June 2025 issue of Population Connection.
Learn more about RUWDUC [[link removed]] Read the survey results [[link removed]]
PROGRAM UPDATES
[[link removed]] Taking Action on Capitol Hill and Online
While it has been hard to watch the freezing of foreign aid, the slashing of family planning and reproductive health care, and other destructive cuts, we have been heartened by the progressive activist commitment to fighting back (including from our members and supporters)!
Read updates from the field [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] Feds Freeze Family Planning Funding
The global health funding freeze has cut contraceptive access for millions around the world.
See the latest updates from the Hill [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] From Campuses to Conferences
Read some highlights from recent trips by PopEd team members Bennett Steidinger, Barbara Huth, Cara Borja, Laura Short, Lindsey Bailey, and Carol Bliese.
Learn more about PopEd staff activities [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] Spring Events and Activities in Full Swing
Population Connection members and supporters have brought loads of energy and enthusiasm to our spring slate of virtual events — we hope you’ll be inspired to join us in the future!
Find recaps and more here [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] Global Partner Spotlight: Turimiquire Foundation
The Turimiquire Foundation works in the northeastern coastal region of Venezuela, delivering family planning and reproductive health services and improving rural education and development for a population that’s often overlooked.
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[[link removed]] President’s Circle Member Profile: Christopher Brown
Christopher Brown has been a long-time advocate for social justice, environmental conservation, and community building. He joined Population Connection in 1994 because he was inspired by our candid population messaging as an environmental organization — an increasing rarity among US-based environmental groups.
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Friend,
“ The world remains massively off track to limiting global warming to 1.5°C and avoiding the worst of climate catastrophe.”
– UN Secretary-General António Guterres [[link removed]]
The terrible toll of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 was exacerbated by lack of adequate fire escapes —146 Greenwich Village factory workers died in the tragedy.
Modern building codes require multiple exits where substantial numbers of people congregate. Common sense demands alternate escape routes. Unfortunately, current efforts to address the climate crisis fail this test.
While enormous amounts are being invested in techno-fixes, there is growing evidence that the world will miss the oft-stated 2050 goal [[link removed]] of net zero CO2 emissions from human activities by a very wide margin. The cruel, calculated cancellation by Trump/Musk of all US investments in family planning and their deliberate decimation of climate programs mean that we are betting our future on hallucinations.
There is still a “second exit.” If we can resume and accelerate support for family planning within several years, that could prove invaluable in the climate fight, especially if net zero by 2050 proves to be a mirage.
While shifting the population curve is no quick fix, it can make an enormous difference over generations. The UN projects with 95% certainty that the world population will be between 9 billion and 11.4 billion people in 2100 [[link removed](Probabilistic)/EXCEL_FILES/2_Population/UN_PPP2024_Output_PopTot.xlsx] and that the US population will be between 256 million and 625 million [[link removed](Probabilistic)/EXCEL_FILES/2_Population/UN_PPP2024_Output_PopTot.xlsx] . Anyone who thinks the magnitude of these potential different outcomes doesn’t matter in terms of emissions totals is ignoring basic arithmetic.
Calls to meet the climate crisis by stabilizing population through the expansion of voluntary family planning are met with near-universal, unconscionable silence. Most environmental groups either ignore the subject or paper over it with spurious claims that population concerns are inherently racist. Tell that to the leaders in the Global South [[link removed]] who are deeply concerned about the dire impacts of overpopulation. Maybe detractors should spend less time looking over their shoulders and more time listening to such voices.
Also, given our own sky-high emissions, it’s high time to consider the environmental impacts of the roughly one million+ unplanned births [[link removed]] here in the United States annually. Vice President Vance once ominously asserted that “when you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power—you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic—than people who don’t have kids.”
Ending existing unmet need for family planning is an investment in our shared future that we can easily afford. Doing so would unquestionably result in substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions.
When long-anticipated disaster strikes, it can be too late to sound the alarm. The clock is ticking for Planet Earth. Is anyone really listening?
[[link removed]] John Seager
PRESIDENT AND CEO
[email protected] [[email protected]]
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