Getting Out of Overshoot Requires the U.S. to be Accountable for the Size of Our Population

Population multiplies every problem, increasing impacts and complexity for our cities, our nation, and our civilization. The U.S. will set a global example by adopting a population policy that doesn’t beat around the bush about overpopulation. It is not debatable. The world is overpopulated, and the U.S. is overpopulated. Our policy will sensitively, but clearly, set forth our goals for U.S. and world population to peak as soon as possible. Our policies and actions will be rights-based and dependent on women and couples freely making informed, well-considered, responsible family-size decisions.

U.S. population policy will be informed by these facts:

Humankind is in ecological overshoot, globally, meaning we are not living in balance with the natural world
The U.S. is in ecological overshoot, meaning we’re not doing our part
Continuing in overshoot means our children and their children will inherit a dead planet
To get out of overshoot we must shrink the scale of our nation’s ecological footprint
That footprint is determined by the size of our economy and the magnitude of our population
We must all live in extreme poverty if we aren’t willing to allow our population to contract
Children have the right to be born into a livable world
Therefore, we must embrace and support the current trend toward choosing smaller families
To be a good global citizen, the U.S. will be accountable for the size of its population
As part of our National Project to End Ecological Overshoot, U.S. population must contract every year
Fortunately, smaller families and fewer people improve our lives in many ways (see links below).

“All couples and individuals have the basic right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have the information, education and means to do so; the responsibility of couples and individuals in the exercise of this right takes into account the needs of their living and future children - and their responsibilities towards the community;” – from the World Plan of Action adopted by the 1974 World Conference on Population

U.S. population policy will:

respect the right of women and couples to responsibly choose how many children to conceive
promote and celebrate small-family choices
provide free permanent and temporary contraception
end unplanned parenthood
eliminate the outdated signals that society values large families
end financial incentives that reward or encourage larger families
provide unprecedented support for childfree and one-child families
report regularly on our progress reducing the birth rate
increase U.S. aid for family planning around the world
end the “global gag rule” that withholds aid to foreign organizations that provide information, referrals or services for legal abortion
counter and remove pronatalist pressure in all its forms, especially that which is coercive
cease exploitation of immigrants as a source of cheap labor, limiting immigration primarily to refugees and asylum-seekers
treat refugees humanely and with compassion, providing rapid adjudication of requests for asylum
achieve the necessary dramatic population reduction, ethically and voluntarily

LEARN MORE

Short Reads:

Population Decline Will Change the World for the Better (in Scientific American)

Population and the Great Transition

Why Have a Small Family? (Fair Start Movement)

Small Families: Is it OK for a child to grow up in a small family? (American Academy of Pediatrics)

Why One Child Is Enough for Me—and Might Be for You (A smaller family means all of the joy, less of the crap.) – by Lauren Sandler in Slate

Gilead Watch: Protect Womens’ Rights From Pronatal Politicians (Population Matters)

Population Policies that Work

Family Planning and Environmental Sustainability: Assessing the Science - by Robert Engelman

Westerners Don't Appreciate How Amazing Contraception Is

Florence Blondel Population Voice

U.S. State Department Population Policy (beats around the bush too much)

Longer, but Critical Read:

Overshoot and the Population Conundrum - by William E. Rees