His bigoted rampage left little doubt who he meant by "we" and "our way of life."

The eco-fascism of the far-right couches its racist intent as concern for the environment, demonises women of color for "overpopulation" and stokes fears of an end to white racial "purity" and power.

It uses the current specter of looming ecological collapse to reawaken a genocidal impulse as old as the United States, wiping out those deemed unfit to survive.

Only a few people defend the most horrific expression of these beliefs.

Women's fertility - environmental sustainability

But today, arguments for population control are reemerging in mainstream and even liberal discussions around limiting women's fertility in the name of environmental sustainability.

This isn't the first time women's bodies have been treated as a means to a demographic end.

Recall such ugly initiatives, all mainstream in their day, to forcibly sterilize Black, Latina, and Indigenous women, to treat Puerto Rican women like lab rats in contraceptive trials to keep the island's population down and to fund sterilization camps in India.

Reproductive justice

Invariably, even the most nefarious population control projects claim to serve some unassailable social good, like poverty reduction or peace.

After Hurricane Katrina, a Louisiana representative proposed paying people who receive state assistance $1,000 in exchange for being sterilized.

He explained the benefits of reducing the number of poor people, citing the likelihood of more frequent hurricanes and the need to conserve resources.

The reproductive justice movement then emerged to redefine these policies as human rights abuses.

But today, the monster of population control has been reanimated, and these gains are again under threat.

Fewer poor people

Most people now know better than to use the discredited term "population control."

Neither will you hear mainstream voices talking about "black overpopulation."

Listen, instead, for rights-based and social justice language that positions contraception and family planning as core strategies to reduce carbon emissions.

For instance, a USAID blog entry for World Population Day links family planning to protecting "people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership," before going on to say that "by slowing rapid population growth, family planning can help to decrease the sheer number of poor people."

Today's mainstream population control advocates offer full-throated support for reproductive rights.

They point to a happy coincidence that women's freedom to limit childbearing is also a key solution to climate change.

Win-win propositions are inherently appealing, but we should be skeptical of solutions that ask little of those who have caused the problem. Women around the world will tell you that access to healthcare, family planning, contraception and abortion remain critical unmet needs.

Fewer emissions, fewer children

True reproductive justice, as conceived by women who have long been targeted for population control, includes the option to choose how many children to have and raise them in a safe, healthy environment.

But those seeking to instrumentalize these basic rights as climate solutions segue too seamlessly and singularly to the emissions-cutting benefits of women bearing fewer children—not just any women, but the same poor Black and brown women who have always been blamed for "having too many babies."

Whatever their political underpinnings, population-based approaches to climate change are steeped in three falsehoods. Continue reading

• Yifat Susskind is the Executive Director of MADRE, an international women's human rights organization that partners with community-based women's groups worldwide facing war and disaster.
• Image: Institute for Policy Studies

Users of the app have a lower unintended pregnancy rate than the pill (6.5 percent as against 9 percent), without the side effects of hormonal contraception.

The app - which also works for pregnancy planning - was developed by Swedish nuclear physicist Elina Berglund and her husband Raoul Scherwizl.

Berglund says the app uses scientific research to empower women with knowledge about their body and to replace medication with technology.

"Consumers are increasingly using digital health technologies to inform their everyday health decisions, and this new app can provide an effective method of contraception if it's used carefully and correctly," the FDA says.

Users download the app to a mobile device and use it to keep a record of their temperature (which they take each morning with an "extra-sensitive" thermometer). Temperature records are important, as a woman's body temperature rises slightly when she is fertile.

The temperature data is combined with information about the woman's menstrual cycle into a 'smart' algorithm, which helps determine when a woman is ovulating.

This in turn lets users know when they should avoid having unprotected sex if they don't want to get pregnant - or have unprotected sex if they do want to get pregnant.

The Church teaches using contraception is immoral, because it intentionally separates procreation from the sexual act. However, it does approve of fertility mapping methods like natural family planning.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Shots
• Image:9Coach - Nine
  

The Church has contracted with the government to run health clinics. The contract requires that full family planning clinics be part of the service.

Critics say the church is failing to prove full planning services.

The Church advocates natural methods of contraception.

Still it insists it also provides counselling and a patient referral system.

The Catholic Church officially promotes the natural ovulation method for birth control. But Bishop Rolando Santos, of Alotau, points to a much harder line.

"They should not use artificial means in order to prevent the natural process from taking place," he says.

Church out of touch

Family planning advocate Wendy Steinshe says the Church is out of touch. "I feel like they're oppressing the indigenous people in PNG," she says.

She says bishops send teams out to discourage women from accepting the contraceptive implants that her organisation offers.

Stein says Santos called her to say she'd go to hell for doing wrong.

Santos says family planning advocates give implants to teenage girls.

"This can embolden a woman," he says.

Family planning NGOs say they serve young women because teenage pregnancy rates are growing.

The UN estimates that one in six PNG females will have her first child before she turns 18.

Cathy Fokes, a former NGO director, says the Church conducts spot checks on health providers. "They didn't want to get caught, they could lose their jobs."

Dr Glen Mola, head of obstetrics at the Port Moresby General Hospital, believes these are rare.

He says there are a few fundamentalists in the Catholic hierarchy who have "bees in their bonnets".

Dr Mola said he's aware of cases where the Church clinics destroys family planning supplies.

"They use very small amounts, like the condoms, the pills and the injectables, and then they expire," he says.

Then, he says. they incinerate them.

He says he's told senior health officials but they depend too much on the Catholic Church's health services.

NGO director Stein wants a cut to the Church's funding.

The PNG Health Department did not respond to repeated requests from the ABC for comment.

Source:

• ABC News
• Image credit: WHO

He believes Samoa needs a bigger population.

So he is encouraging people to have more children to increase the population and among other things to provide "fast and strong boys for Manu Samoa."

He said he wonders who the idiot who came up with the idea of family planning.

"You know doctors; most of them have more children than most of us. There is that saying that goes like, 'Do as I say and not as I do'."

Tuilaepa says couples are prioritising their work rather than making babies to increase the population. He believes this should change.

"For example, if you married in your early twenties, then you should have at least ten children."

He said having many children has lots of benefits... "when you are old and crippled, at least you will have a lot of children to give you your cigarette and massage you."

Earlier this month, Tuilaepa also commented on this issue blaming the roles reversal in married couples.

He said because women now have better paid career jobs than men, the population of Samoa is growing slowly.

"The fact of the matter is that, most of the Universities graduates we have now are women. Therefore, they have better jobs and high salaries than men."

"This has resulted in women going to work while men stay at home and take care of the children."

The prime minister's comments have drawn some sharp responses.

Source

• samoaobserver.ws
• Image: radionz.co.nz

The title of his presentation was "Manufacturing Stigma: How Religious Healthcare Could Damage Your Health".

In September Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chair of the US bishops' pro-life committee, said this lobbyist group "is not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way.

"It has no membership, and clearly does not speak for the faithful. It is funded by powerful private foundations to promote abortion as a method of population control."

Dolan said "the use of the name 'Catholic' as a platform to promote the taking of innocent human life is offensive not only to Catholics, but to all who expect honesty and forthrightness in public discourse."

O'Brien is a mass-going Catholic born and raised in the Republic of Ireland.

In an interview with Kim Hill on Saturday Morning O'Brien said the Catholic church is a body of believers, "rather than some building in Rome".

He says it should should be compassionate and committed to social justice, including women's sexual health.

O'Brien said the bishops were solely representing their own kind.

"And very often their views are downright wrong and dangerous."

"The reality is the Catholic hierarchy have a very narrow, very conservative view that's not even shared by other religions so it seems like a craziness to put what they would advocate into law."

Bishops, like any group, should have an absolute right to free speech, but should not have the right to put their beliefs into law, he says.

"I don't think that their particular beliefs reflect the best thing for a pluralistic and secular society."

The CFC website says O'Brien's involvement in reproductive rights was sparked by his reaction to the great injustices that women especially face as a result of the Catholic hierarchy's influence over public policy in Ireland.

Listen to inteview with Kim Hill

Source

• cruxnow.com
• catholicsforchoice.org
• familyplanning.org.nz
• radionnz.co.nz
• Image: conscience

While family Planning say, "the general idea is to have it before it's needed," they say caution must be exercised.

"There's no minimal age, but there are cautions so I suppose that anybody who is under 16 even we just want to think twice about, and under 14 in particular," says Family Planning national medical advisor Dr Christine Roke.

"And if they happen to be under 12 we want to be working out why we would be not reporting them if they're having sex at that sort of age."

Family First director Bob McCoskrie said parents need to think about the messages they are sending to their child before giving them contraception.

"By putting people on contraception you're sending an underlying message that you're expecting them to be sexually involved.

"It would be better to talk to them about good reasons to wait, and the consequences of not waiting."

Putting your child on contraception prematurely is "a bit like running across a busy road - do we say to our kids 'don't run across a busy road' or do we say 'look here's a helmet, that might make you a little bit safer'."

As a father of three teenagers, McCoskrie was aware that every family will be different. Values, maturity and "realism" should be taken into account.

A total of 3546 teenagers gave birth in 2013, making up 5.9 per cent of total births - almost a two point decrease since 2006.

About a quarter of New Zealand secondary school students were sexually active, according to a University of Auckland survey in 2012.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: s.yimg.com

She said abortions were part of a broken system as they currently fell under justice rather than the Ministry of Health.

Edmonds said this when making a submission last Thursday to the Justice and Electoral select committee's hearing of a petition by Hillary Kieft.

"It's a health issue - it's not an anything else issue," Edmond said.

"We can talk about this as a very large huge event but over 90 per cent of women are happy with the decision they make with abortions."

"Clearly it's a big decision and I don't want to understate it but for many women it's a positive experience in what was a difficult situation."

Kieft's petition to Parliament calls for abortion law changes that will make it mandatory for parents of a child under the age of 16 to be told before their daughter has an abortion.

The two proposed changes sought for legislation to ensure parents were notified before daughters are referred for an abortion, and to ensure there is "a fully informed consent" from those undergoing the procedure.

Family Planning however is strongly opposed to making parent notification for under-16s mandatory or compulsory post-abortion counselling as mooted by Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox.

Family Planning National Medical Adviser Christine Roke told MPs that parental involvement in abortions was a good thing "but pushing it on young people isn't".

"It's breaching confidentiality and privacy for a questionable benefit".

She said there was no proof that abortions caused mental health issues in women so that was not a reason for parents to need to be told.

Kieft's own daughter, who was 15 at the time, was taken for an abortion in Hawera in 2010.

It was arranged by her school and it wasn't until a year later when she attempted suicide that Kieft found out what her daughter had been through.

In 2008 a long-term Christchurch study of more than 500 women found a link between having an abortion and an increase of nearly a third in the risk of disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Reporting their findings in the British Journal of Psychiatry, the Otago University researchers said that abortions account for 1.5 to 5.5 per cent of the overall rate of mental disorders.

The researchers said their study backed up others overseas which concluded that having an abortion may be linked to an increased risk of mental health problems.

When the study was published a pro-abortion group said that international evidence was inconclusive.

The then president of the Abortion Law Reform Association, Margaret Sparrow said it was likely that the effect of abortion on mental health was small or negligible and closely linked to factors that led to unplanned pregnancies.

She cited the findings of an American Psychological Association taskforce on mental health and abortion.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: smallvictoriesusa.com

The subtitle for the session was "teaching pleasure within your sexuality education programme."

At the conference teachers were shown pamphlets that said sex talks should include a discussion about pleasure.

"There is a fear of talking about pleasure," it said.

Family Planning health promoter Vicky Burgess-Munro said traditional sex education focused on "negative findings" like avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

She said research in 2005 by New Zealand-based Louisa Allen showed pupils were looking for a more positive view of sexuality.

"They were sick of being told just the basics ... They wanted to know how to be good lovers, how to get the most, and most positive, out of their relationships."

Some secondary school principals have been left feeling uneasy.

Christchurch Boys' High principal Nic Hill said it was "interesting ground" but he could not imagine his staff wanting to "get in to technique."

"I'm a little surprised. I don't think that will be happening at Boys' High."

Burnside High School principal Phil Holstein, who is also Canterbury Westland Secondary Principals' Association chairman, said he did not feel comfortable with the advice and he was sure his teachers would feel the same.

"Nor is it appropriate in the form of the health syllabus. I don't think it was ever intended that those things be discussed."

Family Planning provides a range of services to schools, including co-teaching, teacher professional development and resources.

The Ministry of Education recently overhauled its sexuality education guidelines for the first time in more than 10 years. Sexuality education: a guide for principals, boards of trustees, and teachers was released in May.

At the time, student achievement deputy secretary Graham Stoop said schools wanted to be able to give students with the right skills to navigate relationships and keep themselves safe.

Sexuality education is a compulsory part of the health curriculum but schools are free to decide how they teach it.

They do this in consultation with their school community and must consult every two years.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: penz.org.nz

Around 40 percent of pregnancies in the country end in abortion, according to a report by doctors from Hanoi's Central Obstetrics Hospital, the figure is double the rate given by official statistics.

A legacy of childbearing quotas, poor family planning advice for the young, and conflicting messages about sex have created a situation where some are relying on abortion as a form of contraception.

There are 83 abortions per 1000 women of childbearing age in Vietnam, compared to between 10 and 23 abortions per 1000 women in much of western Europe and the US, according to sexual health non-profit group, the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

"On our busiest ever day, we received 30 fetuses," said Thao, who for around a decade has led a team of mostly Catholic volunteers in collecting fetuses, normally disposed as medical waste, from abortion clinics across the capital.

"It's hard to count how many we've buried," said volunteer Nguyen Thi Quy, 62, who helps Thao shroud the fetuses before giving them a proper burial at the cemetery in Hanoi's Soc Son district. Continue reading

Papua New Guinea does not need to promote family planning or practices such as contraception and abortion," said Fr Giorgio Licini, secretary of the conference's Commission for Social Communications.

He said that the annual population growth rate of about three percent, similar to many developing countries but far ahead of the ageing Western nations, is not a problem for the country.

"With a population which is still limited and with considerable internal resources, [PNG] can easily plan to become a country of 30-40 million people by the end of the century, with a much stronger and diversified economy," Fr Licini said.

Last month Radio Australia reported that a family planning push was underway in Papua New Guinea to address the issue of maternal deaths

Source

• asopa
• Image: Radio Australia

Sir Ieremia Tabai, who is the chairman of the committee campaigning for smaller families, is encouraging the people of Kiribati to have two or three children.

As overcrowding and unemployment in Tarawa and Betio are serious problems, Sir Ieremia says bigger families are also affecting the health of women and their children.

In July Dr Laurent Zessler, the head of the United Nations Population Fund in the Pacific, had talks with the government of Kiribati and said progress was being made on tackling the issue.

He says despite some opposition to family planning efforts by the Catholic church there have been positive developments.

"Different religious groups, including the Catholic church, understand that this population growth, rapid population growth, is very worrisome for the future of Kiribati.

"I would say that in practical terms there is an understanding, there is not opposition that would impair the government to carry out the activities related to better access to contraceptives."

Last year Kiribati Bishop Paul Mea said women in Kiribati have no right to use birth control pills, saying in Catholicism God is put ahead of everything

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Cook Islands News
• Radio New Zealand International
• Image: climatefriend.files.wordpress.com

It has set up a group called HOPE to take its message about the impact of population growth to local communities.

The Catholic Church in Kiribati has several times voiced its opposition to family planning programmes.

Kiribati is a country that has a 50 per cent Catholic population.

In 2013 Radio New Zealand international quoted Bishop Paul Mea as saying that women in Kiribati have no right to use birth control pills.

Other churches in Kiribati are backing the Ministry of Health's call.

In 2013 Family Planning New Zealand completed a cost-benefit analysis of increasing access to family planning in Kiribati.

The project was funded by the New Zealand aid programme.

According to the Family Planning researcher Jacob Daube, a cost-benefit analysis of increasing access to family planning in Kiribati stated that there is likely to be a substantial return on every dollar spent on family planning in Kiribati and fertility rates would also fall.

He said that would mean public sector savings of about US$23 for every dollar spent or the equivalent of US$17 million over 15 years.

Right to life New Zealand complained about an interview with Daube aired on Radio New Zealand in November 2013.

The basis of the complaint was that it failed to make a reasonable effort to present significant points of view, either in the same programme or in other programmes within the period of current interest.

In the complaint Right to Life New Zealand contended the programme featured members of the international population control movement and their intention to change the culture in Kiribati to accept contraception and abortion.

It acknowledged that Kiribati has a serious demographic problem but said it is not going to be solved with contraception, sterilisation and abortion.

It acknowledged that, at the end of the programme, it was briefly mentioned that the Catholic Church was opposed to contraception but there was no explanation of the reasons for the opposition.

The head of HOPE, Dr Teatao Tiira, says the community needs to understand the data and the effects a growing population has.

Kiribati has a population of just over 100,000, with half of them living around Tarawa and Betio.

There are about 2,000 births a year and a natural death rate of about 400 to 500 annually.

Source

• Island Business
• Pacific Islands Report
• RightToLife.ogr.nz
• Image: vuelaviajes.com

What follows is Giorgio's original article.

POPULATION INCREASE NOT A NIGHTMARE

By Fr Giorgio Licini PIME - Catholic Reporter PNG

The recently released 2011 census figures point at a consistent population increase in Papua New Guinea as in many developing countries. The opposite trend is taking place in western societies now experiencing an aging population and decreasing number of children after a consistent growth following World War II. It may be interesting to notice how in their time they tackled the issue and what PNG can learn from their experience. There are at least three areas of interest.

The first refers to a massive development and maintenance of infrastructures. The works must be done properly. Under a mantle of road asphalt in Europe there are 30-50 centimeters of hard rocks. That way it is very hard for the pavement to just disappear and give way to deep pot holes. In a poorer country like the Philippines most of the roads are cemented. A technique that may be more expensive, but for a solution that lasts forever. Besides practical decisions, however, what really matters is that infrastructure is funded and really put in place based on a long term national plan. Massive corruption and diversion of funds is incompatible with national development.

A second area of concern is certainly education. While the western population was growing in the past decades, every child had to be in school. As often happens, an educated population becomes much less reproductive; to the point that some countries now worry about generation imbalance and decreasing number of children.

Job opportunities and houses also need to be provided. In a modern and urban set up fertility rates decrease when people start engaging in a more meaningful social life and become busy not only with work, but also with cultural, social and recreational activities.

Does family planning, contraception and the tragedy of abortion also contribute to population control? Certainly! But does Papua New Guinea need to rely on such practices to achieve its goal? It really doesn't seem to be the case. With still limited population and considerable internal resources and external help, PNG can easily plan to be a country of 30-40 million people by the end of the century, with a much stronger and diversified economy, just by stamping out corruption, instilling a better sense of discipline in its citizens and working hard for education, infrastructural development, and a crime free society.

Papua New Guinea has more natural resources than any European country. It is slightly smaller than France and bigger that Germany, which have 65 and 81 million people respectively. Papua New Guinea has only seven-eight million. Population will certainly increase. It will be a problem to address, but not a nightmare!

Source

• Supplied by Fr Giorgi Licini
• Image: Asopa

Licini told the news agency Agenzia Fides that the increase in population in Papua New Guinea is not a nightmare, but it can result in an encouraging prospect for growth and social and economic progress of the country.

The data of the 2011 census, published recently, show a lower rate of population growth of about 3.1 % per annum. Papua New Guinea is in line with many developing countries, while in the West there is a gradual ageing of the population.

Licini, said is not a problem or a "spectrum" for the country, as some observers argue, following the neo-Malthusian ideologies. "PNG does not need to promote family planning or practices such as contraception and abortion."

With a population which is still limited and with considerable internal resources, PNG can easily plan to become a country of 30-40 million people by the end of the century, with a much stronger and diversified economy", he said.

Source

• Agenzia Fides
• Image: Asopa

AAP reports that deleting two proteins essential for sperm transport has been found to make male mice temporarily infertile .

"Our technique is good because it's not hormonal, so males won't be afraid to take it," Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences senior lecturer Dr Sab Ventura told the Herald Sun. Continue reading

"The way to interpret this is that the laws are still in effect, but the judges and the policemen have all been fired," said Wang Feng, director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy in Beijing. "Soon the laws will also change."

In a move that may signal a future weakening of the policy, the State Council, China's Cabinet, said it proposed to merge the existing Ministry of Health with the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

"Saying that there is no change is a measure to save face and a recognition that they can't announce all the change in one day," said Wang.

"The National Population and Family Planning Commission was created for a single mandate of controlling population growth and now they no longer have that, those powers have been dissolved.

"What the government is doing is a major political move and they cannot make or announce all the policy changes that go along with it in one day. They know they can't dismantle everything all at once. It's going to take some time.

"It will not take long, however, for change to come. Leaders are aware of the changing demographics. The one-child policy has taken a toll on the labor force and has jeopardised the future economy….

"The family planning commission employs more than 500,000 people and it will be difficult to change this bureaucracy and what it has done for so many years.

"The people employed within the system are going to be redundant and many of them will likely leave, enabling a shifting of resources to the Ministry of Health. Those resources can be used to invest in reproductive health," Wang said.

"This is going to be an extremely difficult process."

Sources:

Xinhua

Wall Street Journal

Image: China Mike

Pro-choice groups have labelled Right to Life's ongoing grudge-match as tiresome and time-wasting.

The Charities Commission confirmed it received a complaint regarding the Family Planning Association's charity status, but was yet to decide whether to investigate.

Family Planning Association chief executive Jackie Edmond said she's confident the organisation meets the legal requirements of a charity.

"We're not concerned it will impact on our charity status. It's just tiresome and a distraction."

Right To Life had also complained to the Government about the association's funding, she said.

"The biggest concern for me is it makes people nervous to address the real issues because a small number of people are very vocal," Edmond said.

"Despite groups like Family Planning and Rainbow Youth being challenged by US psychiatrist Dr Miriam Grossman to a debate last week to defend their websites and pamphlets targeted at young people, they ran for cover. They also appeared to take down one of the offending websites during Dr Grossman's visit," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

Family First is especially concerned about websites such as curious.org.nz, theword.org.nz, getiton.co.nz and a number of Family Planning pamphlets.

Continue reading

The government wants to ban slogans like: "Kill all your family members if you don't follow the rule" and "We would rather scrape your womb than allow you to have a second child," the Shanghai Daily said at the weekend.

China, the world's most populous country with more than 1.3 billion people, introduced the "one-child" policy in 1979.

Despite calls for relaxation, Chinese officials say the policy is still needed, claiming overpopulation threatens the country's development.

Papua New Guinea's Minister for Health and HIV, Jamie Maxtone-Graham, has called for proper plans and strategies for population control to cater for the increasing population in the country. Quoting reports from a demographic health survey carried out in 2006, Maxtone-Graham said the population was experiencing substantial growth with a high fertility rate of 4.3%.

And in Port Vila unwanted pregnancies among high school students and the need to upgrade health facilities in Vanuatu were just two of the many population control related issues which dominated discussions at a two-day United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)-supported retreat.

Retreat participants ended the consultation with a draft work plan for 2012 to build on the progress achieved so far in this area, which had included a tour of health centers in rural areas to inform their advocacy role both at parliamentary and grassroots level.

The role of parents, communities, traditional leaders, schools and churches in the communication of reproductive health-related information to children were also passionately discussed at the retreat.

The retreat was organised primarily for the members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Policy to dialogue with their stakeholders including state agencies, civil society and traditional and faith-based leadership.

Source:

• Island Business
• Pacific Scoop
• Image: Travelpod