Summit Gives No Support to Birth Control

The Earth Summit in Rio is giving short shrift to birth control as a solution to the problem of overpopulation, considered by many to be a serious threat to the world’s environment, population control advocates said Tuesday.

As global population increases by nearly 100 million people a year, non-governmental organizations, such as the Washington-based Population Institute, are calling for urgent family planning action. “No matter what your cause, it’s a lost cause if we don’t come to grips with overpopulation,” a document the institute is distributing here says.

But a draft chapter on “demographic dynamics,” part of a 900-page document proposed for approval this week by world leaders, contains no specific mention of contraceptives or birth control.

The draft document, “Agenda 21,” says reproductive health programs should “enable women and men to fulfill their personal aspirations in terms of family size, in a way in keeping with their freedom and dignity and personally held values.” In another chapter on health, language calling for “universal access to family planning services and the provision of safe contraceptives” was deleted by a drafting committee in March.

Summit observers say the Vatican was influential in keeping artificial birth control out of Agenda 21. “The problem is that the Holy See has a seat at the table,” an American official said.

Kevin Whaley, a specialist in reproductive biology who is part of the summit delegation from the Population Institute, agreed: “The Vatican was the driving force behind this.”

American feminist leader Bella Abzug, in a speech here Tuesday, said a women’s caucus proposed stronger language on family planning but it “was not accepted.” Many women’s groups, however, have not pushed for discussions of birth control because of complex, controversial issues related to overpopulation.

Abzug is co-chairing women’s meetings in which participants are drafting a population document at the Global Forum--an international conference of non-governmental groups being held in conjunction with the Earth Summit.

At one session of the group, many women clearly were hostile toward birth control programs. Speakers blamed industrialized countries, not poor nations, for most of the world’s environmental problems and criticized Northern countries “imposing” birth control programs on Southern countries.

Joan French of Barbados said Northern countries “use population as a diversionary tactic to get away from admitting to what are the main sources of environmental damage today.”

One woman suggested that the proposed document include a pledge “to expose and condemn any coercive population control programs,” and another said it should “reject the imposition of population control policies as a condition for economic and financial aid.”

Most were not siding with Roman Catholic or other religious doctrines opposing artificial birth control or abortion but were speaking out for individual freedom of choice and against sterilization programs.

Some argued that “exploitation” of Southern countries by Northern nations encourages rapid population growth by keeping people poor and ignorant. Population growth would slow down by itself with development, they said.

“Unless there are different policies, an integration of the issue with other development problems, population control won’t help,” Thais Corral, a Brazilian feminist leader, said in an interview.