Population news from November

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POPULATION MATTERS SUPPORTERS' UPDATE

NOVEMBER 2021

Director's message

If you’re reading this Update, you already support PM and agree in the
main with what we’re working to achieve, ultimately: a smaller human
population in harmony with our planet’s ecosystems. A key positive
pathway for achieving that is to enable people everywhere (especially
women) to have the choice and right to manage their family size.

The practical tools and policy measures are universal access to education
and family planning, underpinned by the fundamental right to bodily
autonomy. In turn, those bring greater life opportunities, personal
wellbeing and wider horizons for hundreds of millions of people.

Sadly, that positive vision and respect for people is frequently scorned by
politicians seeking not a more sustainable population, but a larger one.
Our major new report, ‘Welcome to Gilead’ (see below) is the first
comprehensive account of the way in which the drive for more babies for the
state can lead to control, abuse and suffering. With its title referring to
Margaret Atwood’s _The Handmaid’s Tale_, PM’s report shows an
alarming rise in extreme ‘pronatalism’, with governments and groups
around the world seeking to instrumentalise and control women’s bodies in
order to serve narrow nationalistic, fundamentalist and racist dogmas, or
shore up flawed, short-term economic policies. It is an urgent wake-up
call, especially to those so preoccupied with the population 'control'
abuses of the past, that they are failing to see the clear and present
threat.

Coercion, control, restricting rights, curtailing choice have no place in
our lexicon, but increasingly they do amongst regressive forces rising up
across the world – it is those forces that all of us who seek to defend
hard-won freedoms should focus our attention on.

- Robin Maynard, Director, Population Matters

NEWS FROM POPULATION MATTERS

Welcome to Gilead

Back in March, we wrote about the disturbing rise in reproductive rights
violations committed in the name of boosting population growth. 'Welcome to
Gilead', Population Matters’ latest report, expands on the connections
between extreme pronatalism and reproductive rights restrictions through
eight case studies: Iran, China, Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Germany,
and the US. The report’s author, PM Researcher and Policy Adviser Monica
Scigliano, explains.

Read more [3]

Reflections on COP26

The crucial UN climate summit in Glasgow, COP26, finished on 13 November.
How much did it achieve and how did it deal with the population issue and
neglected, positive solutions? Read Robin's reflections.

See also the summary of our COP activities [4] and our blog on the links
between population and climate change [5].

Read more [6]

Boom or Bust recordings now available

The recordings of 'Boom or Bust', our seminal 2021 Conference on population
and economics, are now available to watch on YouTube! A range of
international experts share their insights into opportunities for healthier
economic systems and how demographic changes can help.

Watch now

POPULATION

Prince William: population growth is harming wildlife

At a conservation awards ceremony in London, Prince William spoke out on
the threat Africa's rapid population growth poses to wildlife. In ensuing
media interviews, our Director Robin pointed out the crucial need to
empower women as well as the neglected benefits of choosing small families
in wealthy nations.

Read more [7]

Meet the people choosing small families to save the planet

This_ Metro UK_ article introduces some of the couples and individuals who
have chosen to have fewer or no children for environmental concerns. A
choice to be celebrated, and which an increasing number of people are
making according to our recent poll.

Read more [8]

ENVIRONMENT

A note on climate change and cultural denial

Was COP26 a big waste of time? Population ecologist and PM Expert Advisor
Prof William Rees weighs in on the major UN climate conference and points
out humanity's collective failure to acknowledge and address the root cause
of environmental problems: we are consuming more than the Earth can
provide.

Read more [9]

No country has met welfare goals without harming environment

A new study shows that over the past 30 years, no country has managed to
meet the basic social needs of its population without overexploiting
natural resources. The more of us there are, the harder it becomes to
achieve a good quality of life for all within planetary boundaries.

Read more [10]

WOMEN'S RIGHTS & SEXUAL HEALTH

Interview with Sara Lara, Women for Conservation

We spoke to Sara Ines Lara, Founder of our Colombia-based Empower to Plan
partner Women for Conservation, about the importance of family planning for
the climate and environment, and what she wants delegates at COP26 to know.

Watch now [11]

One step closer to ending child marriage

In welcome news, plans to ban child marriage in England and Wales have
passed their first hurdle in parliament. The bill will raise the minimum
age of marriage to 18 in all situations, as well as criminalising all
marriages involving a child - even religious ceremonies.

Read more [12]

TAKE ACTION

Share our new report with your representative!

Help us spread the word about harmful pronatal policies and the urgent need
to safeguard women's and reproductive health and rights by sharing our
'Welcome to Gilead' report with your political representative.You can find
a template letter at the link below.

Take action [13]

Quote of the month

_"The Polish pronatalist movement drove doctors into such a state of fear
that they would rather let the patient go into septic shock than terminate
the pregnancy earlier and save her life. They are terrified of prosecution
and stigma, as the pro-natalist/anti-choice movements would probably eat
them alive._

_On the other hand, there is a group of medical professionals that are
rather comfortable with the current situation, as it lets them argue that
medical negligence happens due to that "freezing effect" of an abhorrent
law rather then their own incompetence, mistake or deliberate choice to not
provide their patients with necessary medical care – an abortion – due
to their personal beliefs. But in both cases, it is clear – aggressive,
fundamentalist pronatalism paved the way for violating human rights in
Poland."_

- Antonina Lewandowska, Federation for Women and Family Planning, Poland
(from the 'Welcome to Gilead' foreword)

135-137 Station Road, London E4 6AG, UK
Registered company no 3019081, Charity 1114109
© 2021 Population Matters

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