Guest Opinion: 'Family Planning' Won't Solve the World's Problems

Editorial scapegoats babies for global warming and more

When large families are viewed by the contemporary culture as anything but admirable for their openness to life, then there comes a point when governments impose "family planning" decisions with little societal resistance. As if echoing the infamous line from Ebenezer Scrooge, "If they'd rather die, then they had better do it and decrease the surplus population," New York Times editorial writer Nicholas Kristof's theory about family planning walks a dangerous line.

P class=MsoNormal>WASHINGTON,DC (Catholic Online) - Nicholas Kristof, in a November 2 New York Times opinion editorial, writes about what he considers a possible solution to many of the worlds problems, such as climate change, global poverty, civil wars, terrorism, the depletion of forests, and more.

In making such a hard sell with such lofty ambitions, it's hard to imagine what he could actually think would provide simultaneous relief from all these seemingly insurmountable concerns. His solution? Family planning.

The term "family planning" is far too encompassing and ambiguous to be addressed in one column, but Kristof forges ahead. For Catholics and social conservatives, family planning means saving some money for a rainy day and deferring gratification when necessary. For socialists and liberal extremists, family planning means abortion, abortifacient drugs, condoms, vaginal hormone rings, and more. Kristof is obviously in favor of the latter, and furthermore the term will apply to his use of the term.

The first major misstep in his theory is that he claims "family planning" will reduce abortions. To say that abortion prevents abortion is simply a logical contradiction. Planned Parenthood, as just an example, provides a whole host of "family planning" services, but it is abortion that has the greatest, shall we say, "societal impact." But that is only the first major gap in Kristof's thesis.

As if echoing the infamous line from Ebenezer Scrooge, "If they'd rather die, then they had better do it and decrease the surplus population," Kristof rebukes countries like Afghanistan, Chad, Congo, Somalia, East Timor and Uganda because their women average six of more children, according to the U.N. Like Scrooge, Kristof assumes that a decrease in the surplus population is a good thing. Economically, this is a weak argument; and morally, it's a repulsive argument.

If large families are naturally detrimental, because they use more resources, emit more carbon emissions, etc., then families of the future, at lease according to Kristof's philosophy, would be viewed as wasteful and selfish. What right do they have to eat so much food, drink so much water, write on so much paper and flush the toilet at such a high rate? They must think that have inherent dignity and worth! (Satire generously applied.)

When large families are viewed by the contemporary culture as anything but admirable for their openness to life, then there comes a point when governments impose "family planning" decisions with little societal resistance.

For an example of what this government intervention looks like, turn no further than China. Ironically enough, Kristof won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of China's Tiananmen Square democracy movement. With China imposing compulsory abortion on its women (also known as the "one-child policy"), Kristof should recognize what happens when a stretch of resources and a government taste for abortion look like-perhaps he already does. Kristof claims that "family planning became tarnished by overzealous and coercive programs in China and India." This form of family planning was not tarnished by China-China is simply one step ahead of the U.S. China found the logical, devastating end of family planning.

Kristof should not be dismayed, however. The U.S. is moving closer to his hoped for end faster than most people might think. The recent decision by Health and Human Services to block funding to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was due to its unwillingness to refer people for abortion, contraception or sterilization. Competing organizations scored "significantly below" the USCCB by independent reviews. The government is clearly already in the business of pushing out a moral voice in the demand for fewer babies.

When the public is indoctrinated into believing that less children is better, and the governmental abortion policies are uncontested by the public and moral voices are not even allowed at the table, then the government can get away with murder, literally. Family planning decisions become compulsory when family size is seen as the cause for stunting the growth of an economy, global poverty, climate change, or "insert-problem-here," rather than a sign of hope and joy. (Note: Kristof did not use the word phrase "voluntary family planning" until the 779th word of an 803 word editorial.)

This is not about family planning, this is about encouraging an agenda that will destroy the moral fabric of any nation that adopts it (again, look at China). There was a day when the inherent value of every human life is dismissed as merely religious babble-but now there are popular arguments claiming that human lives are labeled as the cause for the world's problems. If a seemingly plausible solution is presented, and the moral barriers are stripped away, then why say no?

Perhaps it is the end of Kristof's column that tells all: "We should all be able to agree on voluntary family planning as a cost-effective strategy to reduce poverty, conflict and environmental damage. If you think family planning is expensive, you haven't priced babies." I just wonder how much he sees each baby as being worth. Following his logic, if babies are too expensive, perhaps they should just be killed, so to decrease the surplus population.

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William Ignatius is a writer and blogger covering contemporary issues impacting the Catholic Church. His blog New Media Catholic engages how the Church can, and should, use new medias to advance the Gospel.

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