FACT: State Restrictions Can't Control Populations

With a population of over 1.2 billion, China has the world's largest number of inhabitants, many of whom live in extreme poverty. In 1979, concerned about its ability to preserve resources and provide adequate services for its people, the Chinese government enforced a "one-child policy" limiting a family's size to one child. Many argue that such an authoritarian approach to population control is needed to quickly slow the rate of growth in developing countries. There are many reasons why such an attempt at population control is seriously flawed.

To support China's one-child regulation, the government also advocates contraceptive use and urges couples to postpone childbirth until later in life. In doing so, women are empowered to control their own fertility - a proven way to reduce population growth. It is therefore not entirely clear how much of China's population decline can actually be attributed to the one-child policy, or how much is a result of the expansion of women's rights in general.

Historically speaking, enforcing limitations on family size, which has been done by other countries, including India, has had disastrous consequences. In countries where a preference for sons dominates, such restrictions inevitably promote further discrimination against girl children. Instances of female feticide and even female infanticide tend to increase as a result of enforced constraints on fertility.

Another argument against such policies is that they clearly violate a person's liberties and individual rights. Family planning decisions by their very nature are intimate personal choices. Why should the State or any political party be allowed to interfere?

For families who violate the imposed limitation, penalties, in many forms, are incurred. It makes little sense to impose these penalties when most people - even the poorest - want to have fewer children. Penalties are often biased against rural and tribal populations, people with less education and fewer resources, minority communities and historically disadvantaged groups. What's more, penalties have little ethical or moral justification. For example, if a government imposes a two-child limitation, a resulting penalty could deny additional children their right to free education. This is unacceptable: Education is an inherent right, as outlined by the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Bangladesh and Indonesia provide examples of population control programs that have been very successful but not coercive. These countries have lowered their fertility rates by empowering women, educating people and improving access to reproductive health care. These are among the most effective methods to not only limit reproduction, but to also stimulate the economy and create further stability.

Imposing penalties and government-enforced restrictions on family size are not the way to control booming populations. For population stabilization, it is vital to improve people's access to quality services in health care and education, and increase women's rights and control over their own fertility.