Babatunde’s Contraddictions

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | September 20, 2013

With an article published in a vietnamese news outlet titled “People-centered Development, Not Population Control” Babatunde Osotimehin, head of UNFPA, suggests that population control is a thing of the past, a sad chapter in the history of humanity that will soon end, perhaps even in China. Or at least that would seem to be the gist of his message from the title of the article.

In fact ,Babtunde praises the fruits of four decades of population control in Asia. Keep in mind that he is writing for the Asian leaders who are concluding the sixth Asian conference about population and development.

“The Asia-Pacific region can be proud of its successes: an average woman today has around two children instead of five.”

So are we to believe that population control had no effect there?

Most of that statistic can be accounted for through the one child policy and other brutal population control policies in the region, and definitely not through the individual choices of millions of asians who were forcibly sterilized or made to abort over the past forty years. Just last week the U.S. Congress held a hearing about some of the awful consequences of population control policies broadly, and sex-selective abortion in particular. Asia has seen an exponential rise in human trafficking. But that is the least of their worries.

In the article Babatunde writes:

“Increased life expectancy and lower fertility rates have resulted in rapid population ageing in the region that is unprecedented in human history. Some countries are at risk of becoming old before they become rich…by 2050, there will only be 3.5 working persons to support one older person, as compared with 10 working persons today.”

That’s right! How on earth will individuals in poor countries take care of the elderly without any kind of social protection set in place, without the resources to even set one up, and without any siblings to share that burden? Taking care of the elderly can be a full time job. How will people manages it without government programs, financial resources or even the manpower? Death camps, death panels, “voluntary” euthanasia. You can just see the humanitarian crisis looming. It almost sounds like the UNFPA is finally coming to its senses and acknowledging reality. Wrong!

Babatunde, like his predecessors at UNFPA is intent on ensuring that sexual activity in these countries continues to be stripped of its reproductive value. Despite evidence he cites about a demographic crisis brought on by population aging and population decline, he still advocates for population control. But the targeted group now is youth. Having already secured below replacement level fertility in the region, by convincing couples that having children is a burden, UNFPA now is after our children. Babatunde writes:

“On issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights, great strides have been made in strengthening policy. Yet program implementation is lagging, particularly in targeting the most sexually active population group, namely youth.”

So will you make up your mind Babatunde? Does development depend on healthy demographic growth or does it depend on sexual autonomy? Does development depend on healthy strong families or on promiscuous youth who don’t want to get married? How will abortion and contraception help the billions of Asians who will have no government, no money, and no children to take care of them in 2050?

The officials of the UNFPA have prowled the floors of UN meeting rooms for half a century trying to convince the governments of the world that they should spend more money on curbing their populations through family planning programs and legal abortion. They oversaw the launch of the most brutal population control program in the world in China, and supported its implementation over thirty years. Remember Babatunde, you reap what you sow.

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