U.N. Adopts Plan to Slow Population

The U.N. General Assembly adopted new proposals Friday to curb the world’s population growth, including calls for giving women greater access to abortions and giving adolescents greater access to sex education.

The plan was approved despite reservations from a few conservative countries and the Vatican.

Women’s groups praised the agreement, calling it a giant advance beyond what was agreed to at the landmark 1994 U.N. population conference in Cairo because it compels governments to take action to increase and improve access to reproductive health care.

The Cairo conference adopted an ambitious 20-year program to slow the world’s population, which is slated to reach 6 billion this year, and held as a main premise that population and development are linked, and that educated women with access to reproductive health care have fewer children.