Population -- The fewer, the merrier

POPULATION
The fewer, the merrier
St. Louis Post Dispatch- Julio 1999 - Editorial

Five years ago, the Cairo conference on international population adopted what many thought a radical premise: that population and development were inextricably linked and that Women ,with access to education and contraceptives have fewer children. In retrospect, those assumptions are "blindingly obvious" United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said at "Cairo Plus Five," the recent U .N. special session to evaluate progress since Cairo.

Over the past five years, countries have voluntarily developed programs reflecting the insights of Cairo. In some parts of the Third World, for example puppet shows dramatizing the virtues of educating girls travel from village to village. "Micro-finance programs help women set up their own businesses, whether they're herb farms, bakeries or sewing cooperatives.

Third World countries are learning what the developed countries already know. When women are educated, they delay marriage and child-bearing which reduces the number of children they bear. When women have additional options in their lives besides motherhood -such as education and career- they have fewer children. Women typically spend whatever resources they control on their children so that the better off the mother, the better off the child.

Luckily countries have offered little resistance to education although cultural resistance certainly persists in some areas.

With few striking exceptions there's also widespread international support for family planning. The most pressing problem with contraceptives is that supply doesn't meet demand. Worldwide, 150 million married women are estimated to want to space or limit their childbearing, but many lack access to safe, effective contraceptives. It's still true that family planning is the single health-care program with the greatest benefits for women and kids.

Of course, Cairo Plus Five had its share of controversy just as the original conference did. Abortion politics were once again front and center. Conservatives, including the Vatican, opposed provisions ",saying that where abortion is legal, it should be accessible and performed by qualified trained professionals. Fortunately, those commonsensical propositions were included in the final document.

In light of the fact that half of the world's population is under 25, poised for a baby boom extraordinaire and a potentially explosive increase in AIDS, Cairo Plus Five placed special attention on youth - another source of controversy. The final document tried to find a reasonable balance between parental rights and young people's access to sex education and confidential health care.

No one should quarrel with one other top priority: safe motherhood. Each year, there are about 600,000 maternal deaths -many of which could be prevented by prenatal care, emergency obstetrical care and family planning.

Ultimately Cairo's success depends on what happens outside the meeting rooms. Are the resources going to be there? It costs money to close the gender gap in education and to provide prenatal care or family planning to all who want it. The developing world has to shoulder its share of the financial burden, but so do the rich nations. Sadly, both have failed to live up to the promises made five years ago in Cairo.

This is one area in which U.S. leadership and financial backing can make a difference. A strong American commitment to family planning would act as a catalyst for other nations. That might give a small girl in the crowded slums or Rio de Janeiro or a remote desert village in Jordan a chance at a better life.