You may be thinking how did this woman get through college if she’s asking a question as simple as 1+1=3? The truth is that was never my question, rather it is originally from 1+1=3? The Integration Hypothesis, an event I went to the other week.
The event was really more of a lecture with a panel of speakers being questioned at the end. The backstory is this year the UN is setting new goals for countries to work on called the Sustainable Development Goals. There are 17 goals that the UN would love to accomplish by the year 2030. Integrated Development is one theory to help meet those goals.
I remember walking into the room and thinking I have no idea what’s coming. A few minutes later I got a preview when I looked through some pamphlets on a table. There was one about investing in young people and that young women face barriers to realizing their rights. According to the pamphlet to help a young woman succeed there are some investments that are an absolute must. Three out of the four of them included some facet of reproductive health aka abortion and contraception.
There was a second pamphlet. On this one the problem that needs solving is economic growth and empowering young people. The proposed answer was first, make multi-sector investments in: reproductive health (abortion) and family planning (contraception), child health and nutrition, and girls’ education. These investments will result in smaller families and more working-age adults. Then secondly, use integrated strategies to ensure: a healthy, skilled workforce, and jobs for youth. All this is supposed to lead to a huge payoff of an economic growth that benefits all.
It is not a surprise that there are people in world who believe the availability of reproductive health is essential for women. That type of argument is old in the sense people have been using it since before abortion was legalized in America. The second pamphlet I was a little surprised at, for I could not recall anyone making the argument that investing in reproductive health would be a key factor in economic growth.
I distinctly remember at this point looking around and finding it ironic at the abundance of smiling, pregnant women in the room. Upon sitting down, I started reading through the material on each chair. Most of it was similar to what I had just read, and then I hit upon a phrase that disturbed me, “Challenges include stalled fertility declines.” My mind started buzzing as everything I have ever learned about population control came rushing back to me.
I will get to the content of the event in a later blog post, but for now I just want to bring your attention to population control and make you more aware of its presence today. People believe in it and enthusiastically promote it. They really see the agenda of achieving fertility decline as one of the greatest goods for the economy and world. Abortion and contraception are merely tools to help them reach that goal faster. Planned Parenthood and some Women’s groups get a lot of face time in promoting abortion, but we should not forget the more faceless organizations when it comes to reproductive health. We should not forget that if we are pro-life then we must also contend with proponents of population control.
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