According
to news
reports, Barack Obama wants to reverse the Bush administration’s policies
on family planning and AIDS prevention – notably its emphasis on abstinence and
its general opposition to condoms and abortion.
This change
of emphasis is welcome, but part of the Obama plan is to restore funding to the
controversial United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Bush’s decision to
withdraw funding cost the agency some $200m.
The idea of overpopulation has long been put to rest (see Too Many
People? By Nicholas Eberstadt), and most campaign groups and experts
now focus on the true evil stalking the planet – poverty.
While the new US administration has made a good
start by abandoning its pointless attempts to promote ‘abstinence’, it has to
ensure that taxpayers’ money is not squandered on morally objectionable and imperialist
population control projects.
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