Population Control: Sources of the Taboo

A conflation of interest between religious fundamentalists and right wing political extremists has made any rational discussion of the subject of population control almost impossible. There are stories of advocates for population control receiving death threats for expressing their views on the air, a phenomenon all too familiar to those who work in the area of family planning. Urban black populations in the U.S. are told that family planning is a form of covert racism, even genocide. All of the U.S. population was treated to horror stories of enforced sterilization both here and abroad as well as to tales of Chinese women living under the regimen of the “one-birth” policy and being dragged down their village streets for brutally enforced abortions.
An equation has been established and is being promoted even now with growing intensity. That equation is: population control=family planning=abortion=genocide for black, brown and yellow peoples. It is extremely important, I feel, to present a parallel equation that works in tandem with the first: globalization=access to a vast supply of “surplus” labor=non-unionized workers=powerless workers=docile workers=workers oppressed, repressed and depressed, just plain too tired to rebel (or—as a bonus-to sin)=secured low wages=fatter and fatter profits for the rich.