World Population Awareness

Protect Our Federal Lands From Fracking

The natural gas industry thinks it's fair to frack up our federal lands and tell us about it later -- 30 days after the drilling has taken place! The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the largest manager of oil and gas resources in the country, just released a set a rules for fracking on our federal lands with plenty of room for improvement. Right now, the natural gas industry is lobbying to weaken safeguards, and we need you to tell BLM they can do better.

The improvements are common sense -- people should know what chemicals are used in fracking before drilling takes place, diesel fuel (a known carcinogen) should be banned from use in fracking, open pits of toxic chemicals are not safe, and fracking should not take place on our most sensitive lands.

https to give BLM for your input now.

Stop the Amazon Chainsaw Massacre

Twenty percent of the world's oxygen comes from the magnificent Amazon rainforest, and it plays a key role in mitigating global climate change. While there Brazil has achieved a 78% decline in deforestation rates between 2004 and 2011, due to a world-acclaimed forestry law, strong enforcement and satellite monitoring this dangerous new bill would open up an area the size of France and Britain together to clear-cutting and gives loggers amnesty for all past deforestation crimes. This would set a bad precedent for other countries.

Brazil rapidly developing, battling to lift tens of millions out of poverty. Despite evidence that growth does not require deforestation, a powerful agriculture lobby pressuring President Dilma . Activists are being murdered, intimidated and silenced. Ex-Environmental Ministers and people across Brazil have sent a clear message to Dilma that they want to save the Amazon. We can bring the global force of people power to get a win for our planet!

Click here to sign the petition which will be delivered by Brazil's former Environment Ministers directly to Dilma.

Two Bills - HB 2625 and HB 2800 - Before Gov. Jan Brewer Would Directly Restrict Arizonans' Ability to Make Private and Personal Medical Decisions. Brewer Should Veto Both.

HB 2625 would allow organizations to declare themselves "a religiously affiliated employer" and refuse to include contraception in their health-insurance plans. The "religiously affiliated" distinction is a step back from the original version, which allowed any employer to declare a religious objection. However it still allows employers to impose their personal religious beliefs on another.

HB 2800, would strip any public funding from any organization that provides abortion services, even though it is already illegal for agencies to use public money to pay for those services. Health-care organizations such as Planned Parenthood would be prohibited from receiving taxpayer money to provide any type of family planning services.

HB 2625 would allow employers to refuse to cover "any prescribed drug or device" used as a contraceptive, as well as "consultations, examinations, procedures and medical services provided on an outpatient basis and related to prescription contraceptive methods to prevent unintended pregnancies."

There is no exemption for surgical procedures - such as a vasectomy - that are intended specifically to prevent a man from inseminating a woman and causing a pregnancy. So it's not only women's bodies that Arizona Republican lawmakers want to control - they want to interfere with men's private medical decisions, too.

While HB 2800 names abortion services as the determining factor in taking away medical agencies' public funding, the result would directly affect men as well. Planned Parenthood, for example, provides testing for HIV, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases as well as urinary-tract infections.

Taxpayer dollars do not fund abortion services. This bill would deprive Arizonans of needed medical care, because organizations like Planned Parenthood also provide cancer screenings, pregnancy testing and family-planning services.

These bills affect all Arizonans who want to make medical decisions with the guidance of their doctors rather than Republicans in the Legislature.

Just as a woman has myriad reasons to decide to prevent a pregnancy, so does a man. And he has just as much right to make his own personal health-care decisions as a woman does.

Brewer should protect all Arizonans' ability to make their own private and personal health-care decisions and veto both bills.

Call Gov. Jan Brewer's Tucson office at 628-6580, or call Phoenix toll-free at 1-800-253-0883. Or email her using the form on her website: azgovernor.gov/contact.asp

Protect Corals, Fish and Whales From Ocean Acidification

Without swift, national action to protect the ocean's vast diversity of life from acidifying waters corals, shellfish, salmon and a whole host of beautiful creatures will be lost.

We need your help to ask President Barack Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency to get working on a bold plan to curb ocean acidification.

Carbon dioxide pollution is also being absorbed by the ocean, causing its chemistry to change and become more acidic. This spells trouble for marine animals that are now having difficulty building shells, growing and sometimes even surviving in increasingly corrosive waters.

Click here or on the left arrow to take action. Everything from the smallest of plankton to the largest of whales has a stake in what the White House and the EPA decide to do about ocean acidification.

Petition Against Jail Time for Birth Control in Honduras

The Honduran Congress is about to vote on a proposal that would send women to jail if they use the morning-after pill -- even for rape victims. But the President of the Honduran Congress can stop this. He's concerned about his international image and his future in politics, so our massive outcry can shame him and stop this attack on women. Click here to sign the petition:/?cl=1718679404&v=13635 . The vote could happen any day.

Some Congress members agree that this law -- which would also jail doctors or anyone who sells the pill -- is excessive, but they are bowing to the powerful religious lobby that wrongly claims the morning-after pill constitutes an abortion.

Avaaz will work with local women's groups to personally deliver our outcry.

The emergency contraceptive pill delays ovulation and prevents pregnancy - like ordinary birth control pills. But if this new bill passes, Honduras will be the only state in the world to punish the use or sale of emergency contraception with a jail term.

Emergency contraception is vital for women everywhere, but especially where sexual violence against women is rampant, unplanned pregnancy rates are high and access to regular birth control is limited.

For more information see: Honduras, most sweeping ban on emergency contraception anywhere (RH Reality Check): http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/02/14/honduran-supreme-court-upholds-complete-ban-on-emergency-contraception-0

Pledge to Halt the Assault on Contraception

Everyone, regardless of their gender, should care about reproductive health and rights.

I pledge to encourage my friends—women and men—to speak out against efforts to restrict access to contraceptives and family planning clinics. Follow the link in the left arrow or the headline to take the pledge

Stop the Pebble Mine! Tell Foreign Mining Corporations that "No Means No"

Despite overwhelming local opposition, foreign mining giants Anglo American and Rio Tinto are pressing forward with plans to build a gargantuan, open-pit gold and copper mine above Alaska's Bristol Bay -- threatening the world's greatest sockeye salmon runs and the very last 284 beluga whales of Cook Inlet.

Sign the petition today and tell these two corporations not to build a mega-mine against the will of local citizens.

U.S.: Join Us on Capitol Hill Today

Today, nearly 100 Population Connection activists are on the Hill urging congressional support for international family planning.

They are asking Congress to:

*Increase U.S. investment in international family planning to one billion dollars.

*Pass the Global Democracy Promotion Act (HR 4879/S 311) to prevent a future president from re-instating the Global Gag Rule.

*Support the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Please take just a minute to add your voice to theirs by sending a quick email to your representative and senators. https to take action. Tell them that family planning is critical to building a safe, stable and healthy world.

Center for Biological Diversity Condoms - Earth Day 2012 Series

The Center for Biological Diversity will mark this year's Earth Day by distributing 100,000 free Endangered Species Condoms around the country. The Center collaborated with artist Roger Peet to create a special edition of the colorful condom packages featuring a suite of species — from the dwarf seahorse to the polar bear — threatened by the world's growing human population.

These wonderful condoms come in colorful packages depicting endangered species and entertaining slogans like 'Don't go bare, save the polar bear'. The website is well worth visiting.

U.S.: What Every Woman Deserves

Last Friday, the Obama administration issued an official policy that will fulfill the promise of ensuring that women, regardless of where they work, will receive insurance coverage for birth control with no co-pays, no additional hurdles — and no interference from their employers. And that's not all: under these rules, college and university students will be eligible for birth control coverage with no co-pays as well.

But we're not at the finish line yet. The Department of Health and Human Services will accept public comments on these new rules for the next 90 days.

You don't need me to tell you that the Obama administration is going to be hearing from a lot of anti-birth control, anti-women's health voices in the coming weeks. From state lawmakers to members of Congress, from presidential candidates to Rush Limbaugh, they've proven that they'll say and do anything to deny women access to affordable birth control.

Doonesbury Takes on Ultrasound Laws - Sign Our Petition Letting Editors Know That Censorship in Unacceptable

The much-loved political cartoon "Doonesbury" is running an entire week of comic strips focusing on mandatory ultrasound laws beginning on March 12. More than 60 newspapers have refused to run "Doonesbury" cartoons even though they are simply trying to humanize the struggles of women under Texas's demeaning law.

Click on the headline link or the left arrows to sign Center for Reproductive Rights' petition letting editors know that censorship is unacceptable.

U.S.: Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood, Says Thank You, Jon Stewart!

Cecile Richards was a guest on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. They discussed the most unbelievable statements and legislation of late.

She says: "Thanks for holding legislators and the media accountable for their hateful actions and statements over the last few months. Thanks for pointing out — with much-needed humor — just how ridiculous some of these attacks have been. And, in doing so, thanks for standing with women everywhere. If you agree, join me in thanking Jon Stewart for holding Rush Limbaugh, legislators, and the media accountable. Sign our thank you card!"

.. Click here to see the video

Click on the link in the headline to thank Jon Stewart

U.S.: Vote on Birth Control Coverage Possible Today - Action Needed

Perhaps as early as today, the Senate will vote on a proposal to allow any employer to deny insurance coverage for any service--for any reason whatsoever. Introduced by Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), the amendment would erase critical protections in the Affordable Care Act and completely undermine a fundamental principle of the health care law—that everyone in this country deserves a basic standard of health insurance coverage.

Senator Blunt and his allies on the Right continue to cynically hide behind arguments about religious liberty while their attacks on the contraceptive requirement are based on nothing more than contempt for women's health care needs. Every American woman and couple has the fundamental right to make their own decision about whether and when to have children. And that every American woman deserves coverage of preventive health services regardless of where they work.

Recently President Obama changed the policy in what would seem to be a good-faith negotiation with a rational opponent.. Under the amended rule, religiously affiliated employers will not have to offer contraceptive coverage to their employees, but their health insurance companies will be required to provide the coverage directly to women at no charge. Women will still get access to the care they need, and institutions with religious objections will not have to provide it.

Unfortunately, birth control opponents have, once again, proved themselves to be anything but rational.

Click here to send a message to your senators: Affordable access to birth control is good public policy. And reactionary ideology can't be allowed to trump that.

Women's Health is Not Beside the Point

There are a couple of new fronts in the War on Women. Breast exams for poor women? Why, that's an opportunity to attack Planned Parenthood. Birth control coverage without co-pays? That's their chance to brand the Obama administration as an enemy of religious freedom.

The fight over contraceptive coverage continues, and we can't afford to relax yet. Opponents frame their objections to the requirement as coming from concerns over religious liberty, rather than as overt opposition to birth control. But in doing so, they have made statements that are offensive, dismissive, and grotesquely out of touch with the real needs and day to day lives of women.

One pundit dismissed women's need for birth control as "beside the point." Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R/NE-1) said that birth control was "unrelated to the basic needs of health care." And the Bishop of Phoenix said that the decision is an attempt to turn Catholics into "second-class citizens."

Women's health is not beside the point: it is the central point. Every American woman should have the same access to affordable contraceptives. The current rule will save the average American woman some $600 in out-of-pocket health care costs. For families living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay for day care or get their car fixed, this could make all the difference.

In a respectfully balanced compromise: explicitly religious employers are exempt from the new requirement. Some 335,000 churches are exempt, but the White House is still receiving a ceaseless barrage of criticism from opponents of family planning. Opponents of birth control have introduced legislation in Congress to rescind the policy.

The Obama administration and our allies in Congress need to know that you see though this ploy. Please take a moment, go to https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/stand-strong-support-new-no-cost-birth-control-policy/HM8jg7Y4 to sign a White House petition in support of the coverage requirement and to send an email to your members of Congress. Tell them not to back down in the fight to protect women's access to health care.

U.S.: Trust Women Week March

Do you trust women to make their own medical decisions? Join the Trust Women Week National Online March today. I hope you'll pick up a virtual sign and march with me today! Click on the link in the arrows or the headline to take action.

The last year has seen unprecedented attacks on women's access to care and on the fundamental right of every woman to make her own medical decisions — not just in Washington, but in states around the country. Just last year, 36 states enacted a record 135 provisions limiting access to reproductive health care, including 92 measures restricting abortion.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund has joined 70 other organizations in the National Online March for Trust Women Week to show just how many of us are willing to stand up for women's health.

Despite the setbacks, 2011 also proved that we can achieve tremendous victories when we stand together and speak with one voice. Not only did we secure no-cost birth control for women, but we're seeing some of the effects of the Affordable Care Act take hold.

Trust Texas Women

A federal court just gave Texas's demeaning and invasive mandatory ultrasound the green light. Enforcement could potentially begin as early as January 31.

Send a letter to Texas media NOW—let them know that this ruling is unjust and hurts women. Click on the link in the headline or left arrow

U.S.: Roe Vs Wade is 39 Years Old Today

39 years ago the courts recognized the right of women to make personal, private medical decisions, to control their bodies, their reproductive health, and their lives.

Planned Parenthood has set up a website - www.SinceRoe.com - to show the world exactly what Roe has meant in the past and still means today. We've got a lot to fight for, and a lot to lose. Please, take a look and share it far and wide. Even better, add your own comment about how Roe v. Wade has made a difference in your life.

Despite the broad, mainstream support for upholding Roe, some politicians are as determined as ever to overturn it and strip women of the rights we've held for nearly 40 years.

To the 2012 Candidates for Office: Women Are Watching

"The state has a right to [ban contraception], I have never questioned that the state has a right to do that." .. Rick Santorum

"Mitt Romney is pro-life and... supportive of efforts to ensure recognition that life begins at conception." .. Romney spokespersons

Candidates for office need to know that women (and men) like you and me are paying attention to what's happening concerning women's health and rights at the state and local level. Candidates are hoping they can say whatever it takes to get the Republication nomination for president and get away with it. They're hoping that because they're making outrageous statements in small gatherings designed to reach their own supporters, that we won't know.

I'm watching. So are hundreds of thousands of others. Our Women are Watching campaign is our best bet to stand up against anti-choice, anti-women's health candidates, and it takes all of us, working together.

There is a full slate of presidential candidates vowing to prevent Planned Parenthood health centers from providing health care to the millions of women who rely on them. They are pandering to an extreme base that is determined to roll back the clock on women's right to make their own medical decisions.

They're counting on the media to ignore their most dangerous policies as just campaign rhetoric. They are hoping that you are so exhausted by the constant attacks on Planned Parenthood and women's health that you just give up.

It's so important to keep tuning in, keep speaking out, keep fighting back. Start by signing the Women are Watching letter to all the 2012 candidates (click on the link in the red arrows or headline). Tell lawmakers and candidates for office that we will not sit quietly by while they attack our health and our rights.

The majority of voters are women, and no politician in the country can win without our support.

U.S.: Plan B Emergency Contraceptive: Tell Obama: Keep Politics Out of Science

The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently overruled the experts at the Food and Drug Administration and kept the Plan B emergency contraceptive from being available over-the-counter to all women. So, girls under 16 will still need a prescription.

There was never any scientific or medical reason for the age restriction, and the FDA commissioner was poised to remove it - see http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/ucm282805.htm . Not only will young women - under the age of 17 - still need a prescription for this important medication, but all women will still need to ask a pharmacist for it, ensuring that the medication will be kept behind the pharmacy counter, not on the shelves. This undermines all women's access to a safe, effective way to help avoid an unintended pregnancy.

Greater availability of emergency contraception has the potential to reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy among young women. Since this was a decision made by the administration, it is a decision they can choose to reverse. Please take just a moment and ask President Obama to reconsider the decision on Plan B by clicking on the link in the headline above.

U.S.: Obama Administration to Decide Birth Control Coverage

Earlier this year, an expert panel recommended that all forms of prescription birth control should be covered without co-pays under all new health insurance plans. The Obama administration accepted this recommendation but included an exemption for certain religious employers. That wasn't enough for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) or the Catholic Health Association (CHA). The USCCB is calling the birth control provision a violation of their religious liberty and demanding a vast expansion of the refusal clause. If they have their way, experts estimate that at least a million women across the country will not have access to this new and valuable benefit.

The proposed rule is only a draft and a final decision will be made soon. It's time that the White House heard from those of us who support contraceptive coverage for everyone. Tell President Obama that this benefit is critical to the health and well-being of all American families and that nobody should be denied this important coverage because of the "conscience" of another.

Protect Our Waterways From Pesticides

Pesticides in our waters are linked to higher cancer rates, hormone disruption and other serious health effects in people. Fish and amphibian populations have been devastated by these toxics, which can be the last straw for endangered species already in crisis.

Right now chemical and agribusiness lobbyists are pushing a radical revision of our clean-water laws - H.R. 872 - that has already passed in the right-wing-dominated House of Representatives but we may be able to stop this disastrous polluter bill from passing in the Senate.

Our water supply is too precious to poison. Please take five minutes to call your senators and tell them to protect the Clean Water Act. Senate Bill 718 is a hazard to all life in the United States, and should be rejected, along with any companion bill to House Resolution 872, proposed by Sen. Pat Roberts. Tell them to support the EPA's safeguards against pesticides through the "pesticide general permit" process. This protects our environment and public health.

Click here to find the number for your senator: http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/getLocal.jsp Let us know you were able to get through by clicking here: http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=6391

U.S.: Women Are Watching Campaign

Presidential candidates are vowing to defund Planned Parenthood. Anti-choice lawmakers in state after state are putting harsh new restrictions on women's right to make their own medical decisions. There has been a constant, relentless, vicious effort to deny women access to basic health care, including lifesaving cancer screenings and STD testing and treatment.

The majority of voters are women, and no politician in the country can win without our support. That means that the future of women's health is up to us. As always, protecting women's health will take courage, determination, and a massive, coordinated effort.

There is one year left to Election Day. Click the headline or the arrow to sign the Women are Watching letter to all the 2012 candidates. Tell lawmakers and candidates for office that we will not sit quietly by while they attack our health and rights.

Call Your Senator About An Upcoming Battle in the War on Women

As early as today the Senate will be debating a "minibus" appropriations bill. It contains funding for the State Department and various foreign assistance programs, including international family planning and reproductive health.

The Senate Appropriations Committee version was a victory for women. 1) It increases the current funding level for international family planning assistance for the 2012 Fiscal Year to $700 million, including $40 million for the United Nations Population Fund. 2) It makes permanent an executive order issued by President Obama that repealed the "global gag rule".

Unfortunately, next week a number of amendments are expected that would most likely reduce the amount of money for international family planning and reproductive health, eliminate funding for the United Nations Population Fund, and block the language that would permanently repeal the global gag rule.

According to research from the Guttmacher Institute, for every $10 million cut from the international family planning and reproductive health program:

* 610,000 fewer women and couples would receive contraceptive services and supplies;

* 190,000 more unintended pregnancies, and 82,000 more unplanned births, would occur;

* 83,000 more abortions would take place (of which 60,000 would be unsafe);

* 500 more maternal deaths would occur;

* 2,300 more children would lose their mothers.

To help, call (202) 224-3121, tell the operator what state you are from, and ask to be connected to one or both of your U.S. Senators. Tell your Senators that you support full funding for international family planning and a permanent repeal of the "global gag rule."

Anti-Choice House Leadership Holding Hearing on Birth-Control Refusal

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health - led by Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania (author of the bill dubbed "Let Women Die") - is holding a hearing on the no-cost birth-control policy going into effect as a result of the health-reform law signed by President Obama in 2010. Anti-choice lawmakers think employers who oppose contraception should be allowed to deny their employees a health plan that covers contraception due to the so-called "conscience" of corporations.

Ninety-eight percent of women--of all faiths and backgrounds--use birth control at some point in their lives.

NARAL Pro-Choice America submitted testimony to the subcommittee in opposition to an expansive refusal clause.

Help us tell the White House that all women--regardless of their employer--should benefit from no-cost birth control. Follow the link in the headline to take action.

Take Action for 7 Billion

7 billion people is a big milestone for our planet. It can seem overwhelming—what can we do in the face of such growth? But now is the time that we must take action.

There has never been a more critical time to raise awareness, build support, and advocate for the importance of universal access to contraception. Please take a stand now:

* Go to the link in the headline above to sign the pledge to support universal access to contraception

By taking the pledge, you are helping raise awareness among friends, family, and colleagues about the critical importance of family planning and reproductive health care.

U.S.: Californians: Stand Up for the Health of Our Teens!

Your 30-second call to SUPPORT AB 499 is critical!

AB 499 would provide teens with the ability to protect themselves against STDs and cancer. Current California law allows teens to consent to the testing and treatment of STDs, but not to preventive measures that could protect them from contracting these diseases in the first place.

Opponents have made it a priority to kill this bill and are working hard to flood the phone lines, we need to fight back.

Call Governor Brown: (916) 445-2841 or 1-855-468-2796

* Select 1 for English or 2 for Spanish * Press 2 to voice opinion on a piece of legislation * Press 2 to voice opinion about AB 499 * Press 1 to show you are calling in SUPPORT of AB 499

We only have a few days left to show Gov. Brown how important this bill is for the health and well-being of the teens in our state.

Key Budget Battle Looms for International Family Planning

In late July when the House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee approved a 25% cut in international family planning assistance for FY2012 and voted for a ban on any support for the UNFPA, and reinstatement of the global gag rule that President Obama repealed by executive order during his first month in office.

More recently the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2012 that would provide $700 million for international family planning assistance, including $40 million for the UNFPA. The Senate action would boost funding by $85 million over this year's appropriation level ($615 million). The Committee rejected the gag rule, and voted to make President Obama's repeal of the gag rule permanent.

House-Senate negotiations on the budget bill will begin soon, probably after October 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year. In the meantime a "continuing resolution" to provide temporary funding for federal programs until agreement can be reached will likely be passed.

The result of this battle will have profound impacts on the lives of women around the world. The Guttmacher Institute has calculated that cutting U.S. family planning assistance by 25% would result in:

*9.4 million fewer women and couples receiving contraceptive services

*Almost 3 million more unintended pregnancies

*1.3 million more abortions (mostly unsafe)

*1.3 million more unplanned births

*7,700 more maternal deaths

There is still time to tell Congress that family planning and reproductive health care services are vital to the health and well-being of women and their families in the developing world. Make your voices heard…before it's too late.

Senate Committee Stands Up for Family Planning

Yesterday Population Connection asked you to email your Senators about the important vote on the Global Gag Rule expected today in the Senate Appropriations Committee - and over 1200 of you responded.

We won. Today, the Appropriations Committee voted on the Lautenberg Amendment, which passed 18-12. Every Democrat on the committee, with the lone exception of Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted in favor, along with three Republicans: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mark Kirk of Illinois.

This is an important victory in the fight to protect access to family planning for women and families around the world, and it could not happen without the support of individuals like you.

U.S.: Your Senator to Vote on Global Gag Rule - Click Here to Help

The Global Gag Rule is a United States government policy - instated or reinstated by conservative presidents and rescinded by liberal presidents - that requires all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive federal funding to refrain from performing or promoting abortion services, as a method of family planning, in other countries. Critics of the policy say that, in addition to reducing the overall funding provided to particular NGOs, it closes off their access to USAID-supplied condoms and other forms of contraception. This, they argue, negatively impacts the ability of these NGOs to distribute birth control, leading to a downturn in contraceptive use and from there to an increase in the rates of unintended pregnancies and abortion. Critics also argue that the ban promotes restrictions on free speech as well as restrictions on accurate medical information.

Now Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) plans to offer an amendment to the bill that would prevent a future president from unilaterally reinstating the Global Gag Rule.

If your senator is a member of the Appropriations Committee, we need you to help make sure he or she votes the right way. Tomorrow afternoon, the Senate Appropriations Committee will meet to consider the Fiscal Year 2012 State Department/Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, including the Lautenberg amendment.

The committee vote is especially important this year, when family planning has been under attack from what seems like every direction. A successful vote on the Lautenberg Amendment would be both a counterweight to recent House votes in favor of the Gag Rule and also a bold affirmation that there are still champions on the Hill who will stand up for family planning.

The Global Gag Rule is a matter of life and death for many women in the developing world. Please take just a moment to remind your Senator of the importance of family planning, and tell him or her to support the Lautenberg Amendment.

U.S.: Don't Let Governor Perry Do This to Texas Women

Governor Rick Perry and the Texas legislature have launched an assault on Planned Parenthood and women's health that is a true threat to women in Texas and beyond. They have passed a bill that would force women seeking abortion care to view a sonogram. It would also require doctors to read an anti-choice script written by the anti-choice legislature. The only way to avoid these burdens would be for women to certify in writing that they are pregnant due to rape or incest.

Thankfully, a federal judge stopped enforcement of the worst parts of the new law just two days before they went into effect. His ruling pointed out that this law "compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity, and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen."

Governor Perry immediately vowed to appeal the bill.

Texas has more uninsured residents than any other state. But Governor Perry recently cut family planning funding by two-thirds - which could cut off health care to more than 300,000 Texas women.Women in Texas struggle to find affordable health care, but Governor Perry is trying to shut down the Planned Parenthood health centers that provide it.

U.S.: California: Please Urge Governor Brown to Sign Ab 499

Current California law allows teens to consent to sensitive medical care for the testing and treatment of sexual transmitted infections. However, currently teens are not allowed to consent to preventative measures that can protect their health and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections.

AB 499 would update the existing law to reflect new and ongoing developments in sexually transmitted disease prevention and remove barriers to minors in accessing these important preventative measures.

Young people should not be denied access to preventative methods when they are available, especially for sexually transmitted viruses that currently cannot be cured, only treated.

While most teens involve their parents in medical decisions, even those involving sensitive subjects, we need to allow for those minors who cannot include their parents.

Take action by emailing Governor Brown. See http://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php

Breaking Barriers: Last Year, Pathfinder's Programs Averted More Than 1 Million Unintended Pregnancies and Over 3,000 Maternal Deaths - Please Donate

Click the headline above to donate. Your gift will be tripled throughout September

Funding for UNFPA: the Health and Safety of Every Woman Hangs in the Balance

On the heels of Vice President Biden's recent trip to China, the leadership of the House of Representatives issued a misguided ultimatum to President Obama: defund UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, or else.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data to develop policies and programs to reduce poverty, to strengthen reproductive health programs, and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect. In a world where 215 million want access to family planning services but do not have it, in which women make up the majority of those infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS, and in which complications of pregnancy remain the leading cause of deaths among women in many countries, UNFPA is needed more than ever before.

This is not a controversial agenda. In fact, it is one shown to be supported by the vast majority of Americans.

But as a result of misguided ideology and politics, and at a time when women's most fundamental rights are under assault, we have been thrust into a dangerous game of falsehoods versus reality- and the stakes are high. What is the life of one woman worth? When reproductive rights are politicized, the health and safety of every woman hangs in the balance.

Each year, over 150 countries around the world contribute to helping UNFPA carry out the vital tasks it has been assigned by members of the United Nations, including the United States of America. As a global leader, the U.S. should continue to show the way. U.S. financial support to UNFPA affirms the United States long-held commitment to save lives, slow the spread of HIV and encourage gender equality. Yet partisan politics continues to play a leading role in U.S. contributions to UNFPA. Despite systematic attempts in past Administrations to link UNFPAs promotion of voluntary family planning services to China's one child policy, no such connection exists. In 2002, both a UK parliamentary delegation as well as an independent blue-ribbon delegation sent to China by the U.S. State Department found no evidence that UNFPA supported China's coercive birth policies. Indeed, the delegation reported that UNFPA advocated against and was a force for changing those policies. Still, UNFPA received no contribution from the U.S. from 2001 to 2007.

To be clear, UNFPA does not support coercion in family planning, coercive abortions or forced sterilizations anywhere. The rejection of these practices is a fundamental principle of UNFPAs mandate from members of the United Nations members, and as part of the mandate of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), the development of which the U.S. played a critical leadership role.

In reality, UNFPA promotes voluntary family planning and opposes all forms of coercion, targets or quotas. Americans support the work of UNFPA and recognize that the ability to make important decisions about childbearing is one of the most basic human rights. Supporting voluntary family planning and reproductive health care programs is a critical step toward improving the status of women and upholding these basic human rights around the world. As about one fifth of the world's population, Chinese men and women have the same right as peoples elsewhere to learn about and gain from the voluntary approach family planning. And this is exactly what Americans want UNFPA to continue doing on the ground.

Claims attempting to link UNFPA with a gender imbalance resulting from son preference in China are equally unfounded. The UN and UNFPA in particular have made strong declarations against gender imbalance. In fact, UNFPA broke the taboo on this issue and became the first international agency to highlight the problem to Chinese authorities. Along with other UN agencies, UNFPA is coordinating an initiative on joint work to tackle the root causes of son preference. UNFPAs 2008-2013 Strategic Plan calls for issues around sex preference and sex-selection to be included in analyses of efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals, in reproductive health-care studies, and in international forums. Today, UNFPA continues to promote gender equality in China and leads efforts to reduce discrimination and violence against women.

UNFPAs core programs help mothers survive pregnancy and childbirth, and deliver healthy newborns. The programs also encourage and enable couples to determine the number and spacing of their children and reduce the incident of HIV/AIDS. When U.S. funding is withheld, UNFPAs lifesaving work will unquestionably dwindle, making women the pawns in this dangerous game. We simply cannot allow this to happen in the spirit of ideological demagoguery.

Help Run Huge Overpopulation Video in Times Square -- Give by Aug. 31

The world is closing in on a scary milestone: 7 billion people. Our population explosion has already had devastating consequences on the planet: loss of pristine landscapes, scarcity of natural resources, and the acceleration of extinction for plants and animals around the globe.

We urgently need your help today to get the word out to millions of people about the global population crisis. We need to raise $20,000 in the next week to begin running a powerful new public service ad in one of the most crowded places on the planet: New York City's Times Square.

The PSA will run on a 520-square-foot LED screen in the heart of Times Square. More than 1 million people will see it every day.

Please make a generous gift today to support the Center's efforts to bring the human overpopulation and overconsumption problem into the public eye and develop policy solutions to tackle its complexities. We've been ranked a four-star charity by Charity Navigator for the fifth year in a row, and every tax-deductible dollar you give will be used efficiently and effectively to tackle the threats to species from human overpopulation.

Click on the link in the headline above to donate.

ABC - Access to Birth Control Act Reintroduced in U.S. House

On July 27 - a week after the Institute for Medicine recommended adding birth control to a list of preventative care services to be covered without co-payments in health care insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act - the Access to Birth Control (ABC) Act was reintroduced in the U.S. House and Senate by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.

Maloney said that the institute's recommendation "marks an important first step toward near-universal contraceptive coverage in America, but if women are denied the actual contraceptives when they go to their pharmacist, having no-cost contraceptives is rendered meaningless."

The ABC Act would make it illegal for a pharmacist to refuse to return birth control prescription or for a pharmacist to intimidate, threaten or harass customers or intentionally breach or threaten to breach medical confidentiality.

NARAL Pro-Choice America said that "federal action is especially necessary since rogue pharmacists who are opposed to contraception are refusing to fill women's prescriptions, and only six states have laws that require pharmacies to fill women's birth-control prescriptions."

U.S.: House Foreign Affairs Committee Takes War on Women Global

Today, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to legislatively reinstate the notorious Global Gag Rule, which would bar U.S. funding from going to any overseas family planning organization that uses its own money to provide abortions or to offer counseling and referral for abortion, even in countries where it is legal.

Ranking Member Howard Berman (D-CA) offered an amendment to strike the Gag Rule language from the bill, but all Republican members, along with Democrat Ben Chandler (KY), voted against the Berman amendment.

The next destination for the bill would be the House floor, if it gets that far.

U.S.: Petition to Secretary Sebelius - Birth Control Without a Co-pay

It's time for us to come together to make contraceptives available in every new insurance plan and without a co-pay or out-of-pocket costs.

Women know the preventive health benefits of birth control, such as determining the timing and spacing of pregnancies to improve their health and the health of their children. And, thanks to the health care law, contraceptives, with its many preventive health benefits, could soon be covered in all new health insurance plans without a co-pay.

Voice your support by signing our petition today! (Click on the link in the headline above)

Action Alert: the War on Women Going Global?

Next week, the House Foreign Affairs committee, on which your representative serves, will be proposing amendments to ban funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and reinstate the Global Gag Rule, effectively barring funding to some of the most experienced, effective and respected providers of family planning around the globe. The Global Gag Rule is, for all intents and purposes, an international version of the Planned Parenthood ban.

Already family planning opponents are attacking domestic programs like Planned Parenthood.

Cutting the measly 40 million to UNFPA won't make a dent in the deficit, but it will ensure that millions of women in the over 150 countries that UNFPA operates in (twice as many as the US bilateral program) won't have access to family planning services.

The gag rule won't reduce abortions—it will only ensure that the most experienced providers with the pre-existing networks to help women globally won't receive funding and hinder women's ability to receive critical family planning services in underdeveloped countries.

Please take a moment , get involved, and let your representative know how you feel about the ban on funding to the UNFPA.

U.S.: Help Make Prescription Birth Control Available Without a Co-pay

The Department of Health and Human Services is deciding which preventive services should be covered by the new health insurance plans without a co-pay or other out-of-pocket costs.

Women know the preventive health benefits that prescription birth control provides, like determining the timing and spacing of pregnancies to improve their health and the health of their children. Couples who want to delay having a child because of uncertain economic times, college students who decide to graduate before starting families, and women across the United States trying to prevent an unintended pregnancy all need access to birth control.

Support NWLC's efforts to make prescription birth control available to all: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/391/013/443/?z00m=19994655

U.S.: Urgent House Vote on Eliminating US Contribution to UN Population Fund

Within the next week, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on a bill that would eliminate the entire U.S. contribution to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Currently, the U.S. gives UNFPA $40 million a year to support a wide range of programs benefiting women in the developing world, including family planning, obstetric care, and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

This would have a catastrophic effect on the health and survival of women in the developing world and would only increase the number of unsafe abortions. Call your U.S. Representative and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and urge them to defeat any effort to cut funding for UNFPA. The House switchboard number is (202)225-3121.

Around the world, 215 million women want to prevent or delay pregnancy but are not using a modern method of contraception. UNFPA helps fulfill this unmet need by increasing access to modern contraceptives.

UNFPA's core programs expand access to reproductive health care for the poor and other hard to reach groups, including refugees and displaced persons, help mothers survive pregnancy and childbirth, deliver healthy newborns, enable couples to determine the number and spacing of their children and reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS. UNFPA also supports data collection and research to encourage appropriate population and development policies, activities to improve the status of women, and advocacy to galvanize political and financial backing for reproductive health care and development. UNFPA also plays an important leadership role in global efforts to prevent and repair obstetric fistula, to eradicate female genital mutilation, and to improve access to reproductive health supplies, including contraceptives and condoms.

Editor's note: For a look at some of the lies being propagated on this issue, look at http://www.pop.org/content/urgent-action-item-letter-to-congress-oppose-forced-abortion-defend-kemp-kasten-565 ... while a counterargument is provided at http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/fact-v-fiction/fiction-unfpa-supports-coerced-abortion-and-forced-sterilization-china

Budget Cuts - it Could Have Been Worse

The final budget plan is almost resolved. International and domestic family planning programs are being reduced. Global funding is being cut by $33 million to $615 million. The UN Population Fund will get $40 million. Domestic funding is being cut by $17 million to $300 million. No new restrictions are being imposed. The shortsightedness on this issue is distressing.

U.S.: Maryland House Approves Family Planning Bill

Maryland's House of Delegates recently approved a bill that would allow Maryland women who are at or below 200% of the poverty level to be eligible for Medicaid family planning services. The vote was 122-14.

Currently family planning under Medicaid is available for women after they have their first baby. Maryland ranks 42nd in the nation in infant mortality and 38th in the nation for low birth weight babies.

The Guttmacher Institute estimates that expanding eligibility could reduce unintended pregnancies by about 4,000 each year. Delegate Heather Mizeur said "Every Medicaid pregnancy costs the state $19,000 per birth, so if you remove a little over 4,000 of those each year we could save as much as $40 million a year for this very small investment in empowering women's lives."

The additional Medicaid expenditure would be $6.5 million, with $1.4 million coming from the state's general fund, and 80% from the federal government. The state Senate has a similar bill pending.

Family planning services would include pelvic exams, screenings for breast and reproductive cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes, tests for sexually transmitted diseases, counseling and prescriptions for contraception.

Alabama, Arkansas, California, Oregon and South Carolina each saved more than $15 million in a year, according to a federally funded evaluation of state Medicaid family planning expansions.

Action Alert: Ask Your Senators to Protect International Family Planning

Please urge your senators to protect funding for international family planning and other global health programs that are vital to improving and saving women's lives.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to make devastating cuts to international family planning programs, which are essential to giving women in developing countries the means to better plan their futures. Family planning is among the best investments in women's health. The returns include millions of lives improved and saved, along with important progress in economic growth and social stability.

The Senate is currently debating its version of the fiscal year 2011 spending bill. Ask your senators to preserve funding for family planning and women's health. Fill out the Action Alert form on our web site to send a letter directly to your senators.

Earth Hour 2011: It's Time to Go Beyond the Hour on March 26th

At 8:30 PM on Saturday 26th March 2011, lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour.

Urgent: Take Action to Prevent Harmful Cuts to Family Planning Around the World

Today, March 8, the Senate is slated to vote on H.R. 1, a bill that blatantly attacks the rights of women around the world.

Recently, House Republicans proposed a FY 2011 Continuing Resolution that would result in huge cuts to international voluntary family planning programs around the world. The proposed budget would eliminate funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), as well as reimpose the Global Gag Rule, thus cutting off funding to clinics and healthcare centers around the world that provide women with comprehensive reproductive health services and access to contraception. The proposal would even cut funding for domestic programs that ensure access to family planning for low-income women and young people.

The ability to plan the timing and spacing of one's children is not only a human right, but also has positive ramifications for women, communities, and our planet. When women have access to family planning services, they tend to have smaller, healthier, better-educated families, and are better able to participate in sustainable resource management within communities. When children are healthier and families are healthier, our earth is healthier. In a year when the world's population is slated to hit 7 billion people, we can not afford to cut off contraceptive access and voluntary family planning services to women anywhere.

Ensuring access to voluntary family planning is the best way to slow population growth. Call or write your Congress people and encourage them to reject these devastating funding cuts. To speak with your representative in Washington, call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Just give your zip code if you do not know your representative.

Million Signatures Needed for a Billion More in Dollars for International Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care

1,000,000 people are needed to tell Congress: Access to contraceptives and reproductive health care is an essential right.

Sign this petition to boost U.S. and international support for family planning and reproductive health care. Your action will help to save lives, promote healthy families, fight poverty, and save the environment. You can help by contacting all your friends and asking them to join this petition campaign.

Working together, we can make universal access to contraceptives and reproductive health care a reality, not just a right. And that's good for people…and the planet!

Action Needed Now! House Voted to Bar All Federal Aid to Planned Parenthood, Title X, International Family Planning

Just moments ago, the U.S. House voted to bar all federal aid to Planned Parenthood clinics across the country.

The 240-185 vote occurred on an amendment to H.R.1 offered by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) that prohibits any assistance to every Planned Parenthood agency in the United States. The amendment, in fact, lists all of those agencies by name. You can see how your representative voted here.

This extreme action comes on top of the fact that the bill already eliminates all funding for Title X (ten), the only program dedicated to providing family planning services to low-income Americans. The bill also: slashes spending on international family planning likely causing some 7 million women in the poorest countries in the world to lose their only access to modern contraceptives; reinstates the Global Gag Rule, a policy similar to the Pence Amendment in that it will disqualify many of the most effective, experienced and respected private providers of reproductive health services from receiving U.S. aid; and, bars assistance to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

All told, this bill represents the most sweeping attack on family planning and reproductive health in recent memory. The bill will likely come to a final vote either late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Please take a moment to call your representative at the U.S. Capitol at 202-225-3121 to urge that (s)he vote no on H.R. 1.

It Gets Worse - the Latta Amendment

Yesterday the Republican majority in the House proposed major restrictions on international family planning — including a cut of more than $200 million from current levels.

Now Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) has proposed an amendment to cut out international family planning funding altogether. Imagine a world in which women and families in the developing world have no access to contraceptives to help them prevent unintended pregnancy. The misery and suffering resulting from such a cut would be almost unimaginable. More than 26 million women in the poorest countries in the world today can delay or prevent their pregnancy, due to U.S. funding.

Then there is the Pence amendment, which would bar all funding from Planned Parenthood, that may come to a vote as soon as tomorrow. Also, an ammendment from Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) would prevent the expansion family planning services covered by Medicaid — even though investing in family planning is one of the best ways to restrain health care costs.

The far right must not be allowed to pass their reactionary, irresponsible ideology. Please take a moment and send a message to your member of Congress. Click on the headline link above to take action.

International Family Planning Under Attack in the U.S. House

A temporary funding bill is being considered by The House of Representatives that would cut current levels of international family planning funding by more than $200 million. There may be an amendment offered that would eliminate all funding for international family planning assistance.

Under the bill, current funding level would be cut from $648 million to $440 million.

The amendment, filed by Rep. Latta (R, OH-5th), would eliminate all of the funding for international family planning programs. Women and their families in the world's poorest countries would suffer immediate and long term damaging impacts.

The benefits to women being able to choose the number and spacing of their children are: reducing the cycle of poverty, improving health, increasing economic growth, and increasing stability..

While the U.S. Senate will almost certainly support a higher level of spending than whatever is approved by the House, the House vote is extremely important.

You can help by calling your U.S. Representative and ask him or her to oppose any cuts in U.S. international family planning assistance. A vote could occur today or tomorrow. The House number is (202) 224-3121.

Republicans Would Cut Family Planning Funds, USAID, Obama's Health Care, Abortion Funding

This bill will totally eliminate family planning funds, such as Title X - even though every dollar spent on subsidized family planning saves some $4 in future costs. It proposes the abolition of the Agency for International Development, which administers most foreign assistance, including international family planning aid. It also would eliminate support for mass transit and energy efficiency efforts.

The Act claims to save 2.5 trillion in 10 years. No mention of removing ethanol or oil subsidies, spending less on war, or the current bailouts given to banks.

Another bill, presented on the same day, would defund Obama's health care plan and any government funding for abortion.

Growth Can't Continue Forever in Finite World - LTE

The op-ed piece by University of the Pacific economics Professor Bill Herrin published Oct. 23 in The Record, "Sleep well tonight; the future is probably bright," contains misconceptions about population growth, and his reliance on facts and evidence is selective.

It is true that the rate of population increase is in decline, but he failed to mention that population growth is still high, with 77 million added to the planet annually.

That increase will result in 2 billion people being added over the next few decades before population can be stabilized.

Since we already have 2 billion living on $2 a day or less, 1 billion going hungry every day, millions in refugee camps and millions unemployed, it would seem insane to add to an already stressed population.

Herrin failed to mention global climate change that will result in 9 billion people living on a planet far different from the one I grew up on in the 1940s. This new planet will have higher ocean levels, devastating to coastal areas such as New Jersey, Florida and Bangladesh.

However, there is no indication that humans are willing to do anything about rising greenhouse gas emissions. It's likely it's already too late to avoid climate disruption and flooding. People remain in denial.

Herrin also failed to mention peak oil production. Our oil-dependent, industrial food production uses yesterday's photosynthesis stored as coal, gas and oil. Since 1859, we have used up a trillion barrels of oil. An estimated trillion remain, but it is much more difficult to extract than the first trillion. This fossil energy accumulated over 400 million years. To grow enough biomass to replace current oil use of 80 million barrels per day and meet other demands for food and fiber would require 30 to 40 additional planets' worth of farmland.

How dependent are we? The bioenergetics are not good. In nature, if an animal expends more energy to capture food than the food contains, starvation is the eventual outcome. Our contrived food chain uses 10 calories of fossil energy to put one calorie of food on the table.

When energy production declines, we can expect food production to decline also. Here is a recent headline from the British newspaper The Guardian: "US military warns oil output may dip causing massive shortages by 2015." See, you don't need to worry until at least 2015!

Thomas Malthus was also an economist, and his prediction about population outpacing food supply has been wrong for the past 200 years due to human cleverness at increasing food supply. The result has been an overshoot of carrying capacity. Some scientists think the population will crash to a lower carrying capacity of about 1 billion or less. Most geological epochs have rounding errors of 10,000 years or more, which is the time frame of our human civilization. Our moment in the sun will be a short run by geological reckoning.

Herrin puts faith in knowledge and our rising per capita incomes, but wages are stagnating in America. As for knowledge ,we seem to lack even common sense in finance and other endeavors.

Economists talk only of growth when what we need is stability and a reversal of growth on an overpopulated, finite planet.

Perhaps economist Ken Boulding said it best: "Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."

Economics is a subset of ecology and nature, not the other way around.

It is a biological and geological world, and we need to come to terms with its finiteness no matter how self-congratulatory we are at globalization and at being clever.

Lee Miller, retired biologist and member of the Sierra Club's Motherlode Chapter Committee for Sustainable World Population.

The Fake Environmentalists and Their Pretend-Game

Regional planners, under the direction of their political overlords---the proxies of developers - are trying to shove tens of thousands more people into the North Vancouver Island region. And they don't want people to grasp the full implications of their devious plans. What is transpiring here is transpiring across Canada and the continent of North America--and elsewhere. New subdivisions are sprouting up all over the map in place of greenbelts, woodlands and marshes and the people have little say in the matter.

The most frustrating thing is that fake environmentalists are able to pose as resisting this imposition. But their issue is not with population growth, but with "sprawl"---even though at least half of sprawl is driven by population growth and not by poor land-use planning. They want to 'manage' growth and steer it away from farmland, while packing the unending stream of newcomers into tighter and denser lots alongside existing residents, who are encouraged to surrender their living space in the interests of food security and the environment.

Thus people are presented with a false antithesis. Either accept growth with sprawl or so-called 'smart' growth without it. The local NDP (New Democratic Party), Greens and environmentalists tell people that population growth is something not in their jurisdiction, that immigration (or child benefits) policy is a federal matter and that nothing can prevent inter-provincial migration as guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In other words, growth out of their hands.

Yet which political parties receive top marks from the Sierra Club? The federal Greens and the federal NDP. And what is their immigration policy? To increase the absurdly high immigration intake quota of the Harper Government by 25%, while matching or besting its pro-natalist programs.

This is the pretend-game that environmental NGOs play. Either population growth is not controllable, or even if it is, they have nothing to do with it--- and in any case, it has little bearing on environmental degradation, whether farmland or species loss, or GHG emissions. "It's not whether we grow", they argue, "but how we grow". Just squeeze tighter in the sardine can so that incoming migrants can snuggle up to you. And above all, feel guilty about having extra space in the backyard for your son to play in or a nature trail at the end of your block to take your dog. If it is nature that you want, well, you can get that on the Outdoor Living Channel, can't you?

Let me confess that, whether it is the white-flight "Freedom 55s" from Alberta or California, or people from across the world, I've never felt lonely enough to want them living under my nose, and neither do most of us who chose our 'low-density" lifestyle. Some may call that selfish, I call it a human right. Is it my demand for space that is unreasonable, or the demand that I accept as reasonable a human population level that is 250% higher now than when I was born? Why are we being forced to accept population growth? Because population growth is thought to be a necessary agent of economic growth, our Great God.

The myth that continued economic growth is necessary, desirable, inevitable or even possible remains our major stumbling block, the first domino of misconceptions that must fall before we can reclaim any semblance of the quality of life that we once enjoyed. We are in a foot race with Mother Nature. If we don't stop growth, she will stop us. Time is almost up. Don't let the Pied Pipers of Fake Environmentalism lead you down a futile path. Fight growth, not the symptoms of growth. rw

World Questions Global Survey

A total of 7055 people in eight nations were polled in September by Ipsos MORI - people in Australia, the United States, Britain, Brazil, China, South Africa, India and Saudi Arabia - and asked to identify the greatest challenges and threats facing their own country and the world.

Climate change (46%) and war and terrorism (46%) were identified as the top two global challenges. The economy (44%) and poverty (41%) topped the list as the issues of greatest challenges for the eight countries included in the survey.

On the economy, 56% of Americans said the economy was a top global challenge. 74% of British adults said they believe the economy to be one of the greatest challenges facing their own country - far ahead of all of the other challenges highlighted: over-population (44%); war and terrorism (27%); poverty (27%); and cancer (23%).

On global warming and climate change, China (67%), Brazil (56%), South Africa (54%) and India (53%) said they believe global warming and climate change to be one of the two or three greatest global challenges. In Britain (33%) and the USA (22%) global warming and climate change were least likely to be mentioned.

On discrimination against women, only 3% of the British said they consider discrimination against women as being one of the greatest challenges facing the world - along with those in South Africa, Brazil, Australia and the USA (all at 3%) and China (at 2%). Those in Saudi Arabia (7%) are twice as likely to cite this as one of the greatest challenges facing the world.

On war and terrorism, those in the USA (46%), India (40%) and Saudi Arabia (35%) were most likely to cite war and terrorism as one of the two or three greatest challenges facing their own country.

On poverty, for people in South Africa (70%), Brazil (61%), Saudi Arabia (46%) and India poverty topped the list of challenges facing their own country.

On over-population, more than four in ten people in China (46%), Great Britain (44%) and India (42%) said over-population was the greatest challenge in their country.

On ageing, China (35%), Australia (31%) and Britain (20%) had the highest percentage of adults who said ageing is one of the greatest challenges facing their own country.

Cancer: Australians and British were the people most likely to cite cancer as one of the greatest challenges facing their own country, with around one in four believing this to be the case (26% and 23%), higher than in any of the other six countries.

Mental health: more than one-third of Australians (35%) said mental health is one of the greatest challenges facing their country.

Not one nation polled identified sanitation and infectious disease as a major issue facing the world. rw

Population Connection: Please Join Us to Help End the Global Gag Rule

Even though President Obama lifted the Global Gag Rule in his first week in the White House, the policy continues to undermine family planning programs around the world.

The Global Gag Rule barred foreign health care providers that received US family planning funds from using their own, non-US funds to provide legal abortion services, or publicly support making abortion legal. When former President Bush imposed the policy in 2001, it immediately disqualified some of the most experienced and effective family planning agencies in the world from US aid. Those that did agree to the restrictions lost the ability to offer women full and complete information and to participate in important discussions about women's health and unsafe abortion.

It's critical that Congress prohibit a future president from acting to reinstate this policy. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) has introduced the Global Democracy Promotion Act (H.R. 4879) to do just that. Her bill will set simple standards: never again should U.S. foreign policy be used to deny women access to health information or to stifle free speech; never again will our government disqualify providers from aid because they offer health services that are legal (both in their countries and in ours); and, never again will we impose restrictions on foreign organizations that would be unconstitutional if imposed on Americans. This bill will ensure that family planning agencies can make long-term plans and will allow for them to enter into multi-year agreements without the fear of a devastating loss of support simply because of the results of an election in this country.

Please take just a moment to contact your representative and ask that he/she cosponsor the Global Democracy Promotion Act. The number of cosponsors is now up to 41. With your help, we can push the number of cosponsors even higher and make it more likely that the bill is passed this year. rw

Birth Control Matters! Petition - One Million Voices for No-Cost Birth Control

The time has come to provide birth control at no cost to every woman who wants it.

Birth control matters. It matters to the young woman finishing college or starting a career. It matters to the family struggling to make ends meet. It matters to the woman suffering from endometriosis. It matters to mothers and fathers who treasure the children they have.

When it comes to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country, birth control really matters.

Help us raise one million voices that can say that affordable, accessible birth control matters, and must be part of health care reform.

Click on the link in the headline — then spread the word to your friends, family, co-workers, everyone you know who cares about women's health.

The Wilberforce Award

Australian businessman Dick Smith has announced a $1 million prize (Australian dollars) to anyone under 30 years of age who can show leadership in communicating an alternative to growth. Those who are interested, should follow Dick Smith's instructions by clicking the link in the headline of this article.

The Wilberforce Award - It has become obvious to me that my generation has over exploited our wonderful world - and it's younger people who will pay the price. I've benefited from a long period of constant economic and population growth and we are addicted to it. But sooner or later this consumption growth will have an end. We appear to be exceeding the limits of what our planet can sustain and the evidence is everywhere.

Candidates will need to have a firm belief that we can have a viable and strong world economy that is no longer obsessed with growth for its own sake, but encourages a stable population and sustainable consumption of energy and resources. They must also be able to communicate a plan that offers an alternative to our growth addiction.

Over the next twelve months I will be following the media throughout the world to see who is the most outstanding individual in not only making a significant contribution to this important issue, but who also becomes famous through his or her contribution to the debate. rw

Center for Biological Diversity Overpopulation Public Service Ad in Times Square on a 520-square-foot Screen for One Month

The Center for Biological Diversity launched a new national campaign, 7 Billion and Counting, to highlight the devastating effects of the world's exploding human population on wildlife around the globe. The PSA in Times Square will reach a million people every day over the next month. Check out the powerful ad by clicking on the headline link above -- now running hourly in one of the most crowded places on the planet.

The 7 Billion and Counting campaign is timed to raise public awareness of the world hitting its 7 billionth human being at the end of October and the impacts of that benchmark on global biodiversity and endangered plant and animal species.

The money for the ad was raised from individual contributions.

Book Signing Set for Redlands Author; Jane Roberts Says Her Grass-roots Fundraising Has Been 'an Incredible Adventure'

Jane Roberts was mad that the Bush administration had refused to release the funds Congress had approved for UNFPA and she set out to raise the $34 million - she would ask 34 million Americans to send $1 each to UNFPA. Lois Abraham came up with a similar idea, the U.N. agency put the two in contact and they joined forces. Together they gave birth to 34 Million Friends of the Women of the World. By May 1, 2003, the organization had raised $ 1 million and a recent tally puts the total at nearly $ 2.75 million. UNFPA has been using the money for family-planning supplies and the prevention and repair of obstetric fistula. Ted Turner's U.N. Foundation has donated grant funds and support. A first-hand account of her experiences, published by Ladybug Press is titled "34 Million Friends of the Women of the World." After co-founding the organization, Roberts began speaking around the world about the fundraising effort. Roberts and Abraham were nominated, along with 998 other women, for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. They did not win, but their nomination brought attention to their efforts. For years she believed herself to be the lay person best informed and most passionate about women's reproductive issues and problems. "I am living in a dream world, doing what I want to do most in the latter years of my life." rw

Peruvian Amazon Conservation

We can all agree about the importance of providing voluntary family planning to women. Please take a moment to learn about an amazing organization, Peruvian Amazon Conservation, which supplies women who live along a section of the Amazon with an exceptional contraceptive service.

PAC (www.peruvianamazon.org) is based in a small village where there are no roads'all travel is along the waterways. It was a real eye-opener for me when I visited there a few years ago. The people are universally poor - too poor to afford any medical care in most cases. Although Peru has a family planning program, people would have to go to Iquitos (the nearest city) to participate; this is a journey that few of the people in this area can afford. Although population density seems low, all people live along rivers, and they are making significant changes to the rain forest by cutting down trees and "development". PAC provides basic medical care, health and environmental education as well as family planning.

The PAC family planning program is based on depo-medroxyprogesterone (Depo Provera, or DMPA). Women come to the clinic for their shots every three months. All women receive their shots during the same week so they can "carpool". (Actually, people arrive at the clinic by dugout canoe.) If a woman wants to start contraception at a time different from the shot week, she is given enough birth control pills to last until the next time shots are given.

It has been difficult and expensive to get a reliable supply of DMPA. People from my hometown, Durango, Colorado, gave over a thousand dollars last year to help pay for the medication and to support PAC. (Please note that PAC is not a slick organization with paid staff. You need to mail them a check rather than making a donation by internet). PAC is a nonprofit 501c3 tax-exempt organization, so all donations are tax deductible. The contact information is:

Peruvian Amazon Conservation 1759 Dyson Drive NE Atlanta, GA 30307 Phone: 404-378-9800 www.peruvianamazon.org

The organization is run out of the home of Eleanor Smithwick, the founder and executive director. She is often in Peru, so her husband, Ron, will answer the phone if she is not at home. Note that none of the contributions go to support Eleanor or the other USA staff.

Talk Point: Have Your Say on Population Growth

This month's Global development podcast looks at population growth. What questions would you like us to ask our panel?

Click on the headline link above to participate.

Activist Yellowpages

White House: 202-456-1111, http://www.whitehouse.gov

Congress: 202-224-3121

Senators: http://www.senate.gov

Representatives: http://www.house.gov

U.S.: How You Can Help Improve News Media Coverage of Population

While it seems the volume of news media coverage of population issues has increased significantly in the last few years, still a lot of inaccurate and biased coverage of population issues, both by the media and by institutions that favor continued population growth.

With food and energy crises, political instability, continuing loss of the biodiversity, and a growing volume of material coming from population activists, awareness has been raised among journalists that we may have overgrown the capacity of the planet to sustain our numbers and lifestyles.

An example of this problem is when the US Census Bureau characterized the US population 9% growth rate in the last decade as, "The percentage growth this last decade...is thus the second lowest of the past century," and failed to mention that the total population growth 1990's and the 2000's (60 million) was bigger than the Baby Boom of 1945 to 1965 (54 million), as reported by researcher Mark Powell of Vermonters for Sustainable Population.

Newspapers picked up on the slow growth idea and published inaccurate stories.

Population Media Center is managing a project called the Population News Strategy that seeks to educate the public about population issues both in the United States and abroad, in order to help the public understand the importance of slowing down and eventually halting both domestic and international population growth.

How you can help:

If you see a news-story which explicitly covers a population issue - accurately or inaccurately - and the email of the reporter is available, please send the hyperlink of the story to: joebish@populationmedia.org . Stories where the reporter's email is not available may be interesting, but will not help us build our database.

If you see a blogger covering population issues, please send the blog url to: joebish@populationmedia.org

If you personally know and can easily contact a credible and well-credentialed researcher, writer, advocate, politician, scientist, activist, etc., who is interested in sustainable population issues who you think deserves consideration for being placed on-air, please contact Joe Bish at: joebish@populationmedia.org . In your message please identify the individual and provide back-ground information on them if possible (e.g. bio or url to website).

If you have something to say about population and wish to contribute an Op-Ed to be considered for syndicated publishing, please do not hesitate to send drafts for consideration to: joebish@populationmedia.org

Please note these general Op-Ed guidelines: Columns should be provocative: identify a problem and identify a specific culprit (e.g. Congress, a specific person, a corporation). Aim for no more than six hundred words. Please indicate if the piece has been run in another publication before you sent it to us.

Appreciate your Lawmakers Who Support Family Planning and Women's Choice

This letter was received by one of the activists in our local population group. She had written a letter of concern to her congress person. The next step would be for several activists to send letters of appreciation and support to this lawmaker.

Dear Ms. xxx:

Thank you for contacting me regarding your concerns about family planning and a woman's right to choose. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts on this issue.

As you know, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade allowed for legal abortions in the United States. In the thirty-six years following this decision, the question over the legality and morality of abortion rights has continued. The Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart on April 18, 2007, upheld a law banning so-called partial birth abortions and reignited this emotional debate.

I am committed to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in the United States. Additionally, I am especially concerned about the increasing rate of teenage pregnancies, particularly in the Central Valley where our teens are becoming pregnant at a much higher rate than the rest of the county. However, I believe that education, a streamlined adoption process, and an improved health care system are better means of achieving this goal than prohibiting abortion by law. In my opinion, intervention into such a personal decision is an inappropriate role for government. I have consistently supported a woman's right to choose throughout my career in public service, and will keep your views in mind as debate on this issue continues in the 112th Congress.

To keep informed of the work I do here in Congress, please visit my website at www.xxx.house.gov and sign up for my newsletter. If I may be of any further assistance on this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

xxx Member of Congress

The Future of the International Family Planning Movement

The availability, use, and funding of family planning worldwide has seen a revolution in the last 50 years, dramatically reducing fertility levels and slowing population growth in developing countries. But contraceptive use is still low and need for it high in some of the world's poorest and most populous places.

In the 1970s and 1980s family planning was in the spotlight, but recently not so much recently as as issues such as HIV/AIDS and poverty alleviation. Perhaps its success has led to its recent loss of visibility.

Recently key informants - developing-country program managers, senior staff members of nongovernmental and donor organizations, and prominent researchers - were surveyed in a study supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute of Population and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins University. One key informant in the study said: "When you hesitate to say the words 'family planning,' something is happening. When you say 'reproductive health' and have to be careful, something is happening."

There is a declining sense of urgency about population growth and its consequences; competing health and development priorities; rising political conservatism (especially in the United States); and a lack of international and local leadership. Poverty reduction was cited as the primary focus of current development efforts.

The agenda of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) meeting in Cairo in 1994 emphasized the welfare of individual women, the achievement of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender equity. This redefinition of the social problem of population growth in terms of reproductive health, particularly for women, has caused popular consciousness about the problem to ebb, since reproductive health does not carry the same political vitality as a developmental disaster or disease epidemic.

"When reproductive health becomes too big, family planning gets lost. The trouble is that it's no longer a focused program. It's difficult for donors to see, to manage and implement." In 1995, family planning received 55% of total worldwide population-assistance expenditures, while basic research and reproductive health received 18% each and HIV/STIs received 9%. In 2003, HIV/STIs received 47% of total worldwide population-assistance expenditures, while reproductive health received 25%, basic research 15%, and family planning 13%. Compared to the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, preventing unintended pregnancies is now perceived internationally as much less compelling and less urgent.

While there was general agreement that collaboration between family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs was appropriate, there seemed to be distinct lack of collaboration between the fields. Young people who used to be attracted to the family planning field when it was seen as a critical social need are reportedly going into fields that are perceived to be more urgent today, such as HIV/AIDS, safe motherhood, and poverty alleviation, while some older, experienced leaders who formerly worked in family planning have moved on. That and lack of funding for advanced training means that leadership in family planning is aging or lacking.

Strong opposition from abortion opponents is also a disincentive to work in the family planning field. Some respondents felt that the international family planning movement was in it's demise, but others felt that the movement would continue with the locus of action shifiting to the developing world in those countries that have major contraceptive needs, a rapidly growing population, and a policy commitment to slowing growth. Others felt that women's motivation to control fertility is so strong (and the social norm of family planning so well established) that contraceptive use will continue to rise no matter what happens to family planning programs.

Some felt the message of family planning could be recast (1) addressing an unfinished agenda of unmet contraceptive need, unwanted fertility, stalled fertility decline, and shortages of contraceptive supplies; (2) highlighting family planning's benefits for reducing abortion and improving women's status and health; and (3) demonstrating family planning's relevance in reducing social inequity. Many saw the risks of increased poverty, poor health, and higher mortality as a result of high fertility and population growth rates.

"The population theme is both a threat and an opportunity. It needs to be better utilized, not for Malthusian reasons, but in order to rise above poverty," said one respondent.

U.S.: Izaak Walton League: Outdoors Journalists Key to New Education Campaign Linking Impact of Population Growth on Conservation Resources

Human population growth has potentially explosive consequences for natural resources and the Izaak Walton League has released a pair of publications intended to inspire, engage, and assist outdoor journalists to reacquaint themselves with this issue. The first is a collection of essays by five prominent journalists on the effects of population growth on outdoor recreation. The second gives background information and tips on writing stories about population growth and getting them published. Chuck Clayton, national president, said that outdoor recreation enthusiasts will understand more fully the consequences of human population growth on their pursuits when a broader spectrum of journalists start addressing the issue as a matter of course. Jim Baird, director of the League's Sustainability Education Project said "Every major threat to outdoor recreation-from climate change to hunting access, from habitat loss to dying fisheries - is, at its base, an issue about how people can continue to thrive while maintaining a livable world." Outdoor journalists should embrace this topic more aggressively." In 1970 the League's members enacted a policy on carrying capacity - an evaluation of how human needs and numbers affect wildlife, their habitat and all forms of recreation that depend on the outdoors. Follow the headline link to read the two publications.