Population Connection Explained

Population Connection (formerly Zero Population Growth or ZPG) is a US-based non-profit organization that educates young people and advocates for progressive policies to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth's resources.^[1]

History

Population Connection was founded in 1968 under the name "Zero Population Growth" or ZPG by Paul R. Ehrlich, Richard Bowers, and Charles Remington in the wake of Paul and Anne Ehrlich's influential but controversial book "The Population Bomb". The organization adopted its current name in 2002.

Issues and campaigns

• Connections between population, health, and the environment, in the United States and around the world
• U.S. foreign assistance funding for international family planning^[2]
• U.S. funding for the domestic family planning program for low-income Americans, Title X
• Ending U.S. policies that restrict access to family planning and reproductive health care, including abortion, domestically (e.g. Hyde Amendment) and internationally (e.g. Mexico City policy, Helms Amendment, restrictions on funding for UNFPA)
• Comprehensive (as opposed to abstinence-only) sex education for American teens
• Development of material for introduction to K-12 curricula to "educate American and Canadian students on population challenges".
• Publication of a quarterly magazine

Criticisms

Betsy Hartmann, author of "Reproductive Rights and Wrongs"^[3] in 1987 criticised ZPG for inciting fear of population growth that she claims led to millions of sterilizations in China, India, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and elsewhere.^[4] Writing in "On The Issues" magazine in 2009, Hartmann said she received some "junk mail" from the organisation and commented that "According to ZPG, you can blame just about everything on population growth, from traffic congestion, overcrowded schools and childhood asthma to poverty, famine and global warming." In her book "The America Syndrome: Apocalypse, War, and Our Call to Greatness", Hartmann is again critical of the organization, noting that as the year 2000 millennium approached, the company launched a campaign that tried to link the birth of the world’s six billionth child to the coming Y2K global computer crash, a disaster that never materialized.^[5]

See also

• List of population concern organizations
• Zero population growth

Notes and References

1. Web site: Charity Navigator - Population Connection . 2024-08-20 . Charity Navigator . en-us.
2. Web site: Starkey. Marian. 2021-07-11. Let's fully fund international family planning on World Population Day. 2022-06-13 . The Hill . en-US.
3. Book: Hartmann, Betsy . Reproductive Rights and Wrongs . 2016 . 978-1-60846-733-4 .
4. Web site: Kharod . Aditi . 2019-11-20 . A 1960s population control organization rebranded in 2002. Now it's recruiting UNC students. • NC Newsline . 2024-08-20 . NC Newsline . en-US.
5. Book: Hartmann, Betsy . The America Syndrome . National Geographic Books . New York ; Oakland ; London . 2017-05-23 . 1-60980-740-5 .