Overpopulation threatens the quality of life for people everywhere. Population Connection is the national grassroots population organization that educates young people and advocates progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth's resources.

[Revised May 3, 2003)

Statement of Goals

Population Connection believes the well-being and even the survival of humanity depend on the attainment of an equilibrium between population and the environment. Just as the earth and its resources of land, air and water are limited, so are the demands that can be placed upon them.

Continued population growth is foremost among the factors aggravating deforestation, wildlife extinction, climate change and other critical environmental and social problems. It also erodes democratic government, multiplies urban problems, consumes agricultural land, increases volumes of waste, heightens competition for scarce resources and threatens the aspirations of the poor for a better life.

The only acceptable solution to the population problem is through expanding educational, advocacy and service efforts that lower birth rates. Rather than support a larger population at a poorer level, we believe it is preferable to support a smaller population at adequate standards of living.

Population Connection recognizes the gravity of global overpopulation and encourages citizens in every nation to work towards slowing population growth. Recognizing the interdependence of the nations of the earth, we support the development and growth of citizen organizations in other countries dedicated to those ends.

As a U.S. based organization, Population Connection works primarily to educate and motivate Americans to help meet the global population challenge, and to mobilize this support for the adoption of policies and programs necessary to slow global population growth. Because the United States is the chief consumer of the world's resources, slowing its population growth is disproportionately important for protecting the global environment. Because the United States has a major influence on international political, economic and military affairs, reshaping its policies is important for the success of international efforts to slow population growth.

In pursuit of these goals, Population Connection participates in coalitions; influences governmental policies on the international, national, state and local levels; works extensively with the media; engages in teacher training and public education programs; and produces educational materials. We conduct research, interpret and apply the research of others, and provide a population perspective on social and environmental problems.

Achieving a Sustainable Society

Population Connection recognizes the significant roles which consumption, lifestyles, and technology play in determin ing the total impact of human society on the earth. Together, these factors will determine whether we maintain a habitable planet and achieve a sustainable society, i.e., one which meets the needs and aspirations of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

We support efforts to create a sustainable society, both in the United States and worldwide, that integrates an awareness of the central role population plays in meeting this objective. Specifically, for the United States, these include efforts to conserve energy and natural resources and improve efficiency, eliminate our "disposable society" lifestyle, and use the best possible technology to protect the natural and human environment.

Approach

Population Connection recognizes that broad social, economic and political changes may be necessary to slow population growth. We endorse and actively support methods which are voluntary and which are positive enhancements of human rights and conditions.

Population Connection condemns any use of force or violence. Population Connection condemns racism in all of its forms. We will not support or tolerate being knowingly associated with organizations which support or promote the use of force or violence or which espouse racism or racist beliefs.

Population Connection strives to be believable on a complex topic, creative in thinking about the future, concerned for the welfare of all human beings, and forceful but not strident in the presentation of its views.

Specific Population Issues

International Population Leadership

World population now exceeds six billion and at current growth rates could exceed nine billion by 2050. The continued pressures of a growing world population are pushing the world towards global environmental catastrophe.

Population Connection believes that to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life for all, the nations of the world must make slowing population growth a top priority.

The United States should assume a leadership role in international efforts to slow population growth and should set an example by adopting a national population policy which commits the United States to this goal.

We should dramatically expend our foreign assistance efforts to achieve these ends. The United States should be spending at least as much to defend the integrity of our planet from environmental catastrophe as it spends to defend itself from war and nuclear holocaust.

Population Connection believes that the fate of the people of the United States cannot be separated from the fate of the other peoples of the world. We further recognize that slowing population growth will require addressing other social, economic, and political problems including poverty, the status of women, nutrition and health care, hunger, and social justice.

We support both bilateral and multilateral efforts and believe that effective action by the United Nations and its programs is critical to achieving these objectives. We support the active involvement of non-governmental organizations and private voluntary organizations in these programs.

Family Planning

Population Connection believes that quality family planning services should be made available to all people who desire such services. The nations of the world should agree to achieve this goal at the earliest possible date. The developed nations of the world, including the United States, should provide much of the funding necessary to implement this objective.

We recommend that Congress ensure universal accessibility to family planning and abortion services in the United States, and sufficient funds to accomplish this goal. We recommend that state and local government also commit funds to provide family planning and abortion services.

Population Connection recommends that states remove the existing legal restrictions on contraceptive availability for teenagers and that they enact legislation to guarantee access to both information and services.

Population Connection recommends that the print and broadcast media increase their dissemination of information about contraceptive methods and about means of access to them, for all individuals and couples who need them. We recommend that the mass media accept tasteful advertising of contraceptives.

We recommend that state laws and hospital and physician policies which restrict adults from obtaining sterilization be eliminated to allow sterilization at the discretion of the individual. We recommend that physicians provide information on the available procedures, health risks, and consequences of sterilization to all potential patients to facilitate informed consent.

Population Connection recommends that federal government funding for contraceptive research be increased to reduce health risks to women and men, to provide Americans with better contraceptive devices, and to protect them from unwanted pregnancy.

Abortion and Family Planning

It is a fact of today's world that unwanted pregnancies occur. Many of them are terminated by abortion. Where abortions are not legal, women seek illegal abortions, at great risk to their health and lives.

Population Connection believes that every child should be a wanted child. Achieving this goal would prevent the suffering of families and the social problems that often follow the births of unwanted children.

We therefore support laws and social practices that ensure access for all women to medically safe and affordable abortion services. Specifically:

We endorses the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in Roe v. Wade and opposes attempts through legislation, litigation, or Constitutional amendment to weaken or overturn the ruling.

U.S. population assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act should be available to fund abortion services in any country desiring such assistance in accordance with the laws of that country.

Public programs such as Medicaid and federally-financed insurance plans underwriting obstetric services should be modified where necessary to ensure that all women, regardless of income, have access to medically safe abortion services.

Any other legislative or administrative prohibitions at federal and state levels limiting access to abortion should be repealed.

Hospitals that receive public funding should be required by federal law to meet the need for abortion in their areas.

Population Connection by far prefers prevention of unwanted pregnancies to abortion. Thus we support research to improve contraceptive technology. We challenge those who oppose the availability of legal abortion to assist in these strategies for reducing the need for abortion.

U.S. Immigration

Because of its increasing importance and impact on annual population growth, immigration plays a significant role in our goal of stabilizing U.S. population. Immigration goals must be set within a larger framework of a U.S. population policy which aims at slowing U.S. and world population growth and promoting a balance between U.S. population and the environment through increased energy efficiency, conservation of natural resources, and sustainable environmental practices.

It is Population Connection's view that immigration pressures on the U.S. population are best relieved by addressing factors which compel people to leave their homes and families and emigrate to the United States. Foremost among these are population growth, economic stagnation, environmental degradation, poverty, and political repression. We believe unless these problems are successfully addressed in the developing nations of the world, no forcible exclusion policy will successfully prevent people from seeking to relocate into the United States.

We, therefore, call on the United States to focus its foreign aid on population, environmental, social, education, and sustainable development programs. Changing political conditions present opportunities to work cooperatively with other nations to address the root causes of international migration. Studies show that of the people who emigrate to the United States, the majority would have stayed in their home countries had there been economic opportunities or democratic institutions.

Population Connection believes that U.S. immigration policies should focus on reunification of immediate families, and that U.S. refugee policy should reaffirm our commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees. In addition, we support measures aimed at increasing resources for the Immigration and Naturalization Service so that all immigrants, refugees, and asylees are ensured timely due process and to enable the U.S. to enforce measures to prevent fraud and other violations of immigration laws.

We also recognize that there are many issues surrounding the formulation of U.S. immigration policy, including legal, civil rights, economic, cultural, and demographic concerns. Further, we believe that immigrants and refugees should be admitted equitably, without preference to race, national origin, color, religion, gender, or sexual preference.

Population Connection recognizes that the United States should preserve its ability to absorb reasonable numbers of refugees and legal immigrants. In order to accomplish this, the United States needs to maintain control, in a way consistent with basic human and civil rights, over illegal immigration.

Assuming these conditions, Population Connection believes that the United States should adopt an overall goal for immigration as a part of its national population policy. This goal should be set in the context of a federal commitment to plan for demographic changes and to slow population growth.

[Revised May 7, 1994,

Reaffirmed October 25, 1997]

Population Education

Population Connection supports broad public education about the consequences of continued population growth and the actions people can take to achieve a sustainable balance of people, resources and the environment in the United States and worldwide.

We recommend that school curricula nationwide include information on population dynamics and their implications for society and the world; in addition, information concerning human sexuality, contraception, family size, parenthood, and non-parenthood should be provided.

Status of Women

Women are more than half the world's people. Their role in the world economy and in the conduct of everyday human affairs is often overlooked. Even worse, in many countries women are second-class citizens and live lives of material deprivation more severe than their male counterparts. As an important part of our work, we encourage governmental and private efforts throughout the world to secure for women: equality under the law; equal access to education, jobs and property; participation in development efforts; participation in the political process; access to family planning services; and adequate health care for themselves and their families.

When women are seen exclusively or primarily as child-bearers, they are denied full recognition as human beings in their own right. Not surprisingly, their fertility is usually high as well. High fertility usually accompanies repression of women, and this fact, more than any other, binds together the women's movement and those concerned with slowing population growth. The extent to which women are sovereign human beings in control of their fertility and free to choose how they live their lives will determine the progress of women and the course of population growth.

Incentives, Disincentives and Taxation

We support the removal of all incentives and subsidies for procreation and larger families.

Local Community Growth

We believe that local governments should support and facilitate family planning, population education, and other programs essential to slow population growth. To the extent that other policies and programs are within their legal jurisdiction, we encourage action by local governments to support these goals.

Moreover, local governments have a unique role in the transition to a sustainable population. We recognize that despite best efforts, the population of the United States and the world will continue to grow for the immediate future. In the interim, local governments should seek to limit the impact of that growth upon the environment and natural resources.

We support local and regional planning to accommodate growth, provided that it recognizes the overall importance of slowing population growth at the earliest practicable date. Such planning should seek to achieve minimal impact from new growth and be administered to protect the rights and enhance the opportunities of the disadvantaged, including the poor, the aged, and racial and ethnic minorities.

Annual Resolutions

These policies may be elaborated by the Board of Directors at its annual meeting through the passage of resolutions. Any member of the Board of Directors, the Executive Director, and any recognized chapter of Population Connection may submit Annual Resolutions for consideration by the Board of Directors.

Such resolutions must be received by the Executive Director or the President at least 45 days prior to the Annual Meeting, along with a brief explanation or discussion of the reasons for proposing the resolution. Staff shall transmit to the Board its comments and recommendations on such resolutions, along with its assessment of whether or not the resolution is consistent with existing policies.

The Board shall act to amend and pass such resolutions by simple majority, after consideration by the appropriate Board Committee as determined by the President.

Resolutions which are not consistent with existing Population Connection policies, or would require the adoption of new policies, may only be submitted by a member of the Board of Directors. They shall be submitted as amendments to Population Connection Program Policies and must be received no less than one week before the date for mailing of the meeting notice specified in the by-laws. Any proposed amendments or new policies to be considered shall be specifically identified in the notice for the Board meeting.

Resolutions adopted pursuant to this provision shall be effective for one year unless otherwise stated in the resolution.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, November 11, 1990.

Population Connection
2120 L Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20037
(202) 332-2200