Facts that highlight the true crisis:
- 259 million women worldwide have an unmet need for modern contraception.
- Almost half of partnered women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have no decision-making power over their own bodies.
- One in five girl children are married before turning 18.
- Around half of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended.
- Since 2022, cases of conflict-related sexual violence have risen by 50%.
- A political backlash against women’s rights, combined with devastating funding cuts, is leading to the denial of contraceptive care for millions of women. The Trump administration’s family planning aid cuts alone are estimated to lead to 17.1 million unintended pregnancies and 34,000 preventable maternal deaths per year in LMICs.
- In the 80 countries most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, population is growing on average at twice the global rate, meaning hundreds of millions of people and counting will be exposed to worsening food and water shortages, as well as deadly heatwaves and floods, among other disasters.
- Global population growth, alongside increasing consumption, remains a primary driver of our biggest environmental crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource depletion.
Quotes:
Alarmism over declining birthrates in the Global North is unwarranted. While population aging can bring socioeconomic challenges, there are available policy levers that would significantly lessen them, such as improving the employment rate, investment in preventive healthcare and education, and tax reforms. The factors that underlie continued high fertility in many areas are a lot more concerning, and urgently need addressing by boosting funding for international family planning and women’s rights.
John Seager, President & CEO, Population Connection, United States
The real crisis is not too few babies, but too many women denied the power to decide if, when, and how to have them. Until we guarantee reproductive rights and empower women everywhere, we cannot hope to solve the interconnected challenges of poverty, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
Sara Inés Lara, President & Founder, Women for Conservation, Colombia
Investment in family planning is not just a health priority, but also an environmental and development necessity. Unplanned birth exacerbates high population growth, which impacts negatively on sustainable natural resource use, which in turn regresses development.
Dr. Edu Effiom, Director General, Cross River State Council on Climate Change, Nigeria
Having access to contraceptives gives women control over their bodies, and allows men to balance the family budget. This reduces their dependence on natural resources for food and fuelwood, helping to protect endangered species, decrease biodiversity loss and prevent climate change, ultimately creating a more secure future for people, animals and the environment.
Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder & CEO, Conservation Through Public Health, Uganda
Falling birthrates is one of the most positive trends in recent human history that we should not only be embracing but working to accelerate given the gains in reproductive agency and gender equality it represents. The only ones framing this trend as a crisis are those who rely on women’s reproductive labor to grow the population for economic, nationalist, and ethnocentric agendas. We are in a state of extreme ecological overshoot that is threatening our collective future. We must abandon our pursuit of endless growth and adjust and adapt to this deep change with new thinking that respects ecological boundaries and advances social justice.
Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director, Population Balance, United States
Women should have the children they want, no more, no less. In Venezuela where we work in family planning, women vehemently ask for this simple reproductive freedom.
Steven Bloomstein, President & Co-founder, Turimiquire Foundation, Venezuela
The bottom line is that we’re still adding between 63 and 85 million people every year to a very finite, stressed planet, with a fast-growing middle class that deserves to have enough in life. The alarmist narrative defeats justice: human rights, children’s rights, women’s rights, and Earth rights. Call this self-serving narrative for what it is: a short-sighted way to build armies of consumers, soldiers, and voters for personal profit, at the expense of women, children, other species, and all of our futures.
Dr. Phoebe Barnard, Global Change Scientist, France
Two mistakes journalists often make about low fertility, both of which contribute to needless alarm: 1) "Replacement fertility" does not, as often claimed, produce a stable population. It merely sets the stage for a future stability that could occur (possibly not for decades) if the fertility rate continued at that rate or a lower one, absent net immigration. Population momentum (the result of many young people giving birth, more than older people dying) and net immigration often keep a population growing for many years after fertility reaches or dips below an average of 2.1 children per woman. 2) Demographers do not "estimate" future population size — you can't estimate a crowd that has not yet shown up. Demographers can only project future population — what would happen with specific trends if there are no surprises in the future. And there are always surprises, meaning journalists — especially if their skepticism instinct is as strong as it should be — should be skeptical of demographers' projections.
Robert Engelman, Senior Fellow, Population Institute, United States
If politicians truly cared about children and their well-being, they wouldn't be asking, 'How can we have more children in our country? How can we push women to have more babies?' They would be asking, 'How can we help families raise children so that they are happy and healthy? How can we create a safe environment for them so they can grow to be honest people? How can we take good care of the existing children who need our help? How can we help mothers and fathers relieve the burden of childcare and work expectations?'
Veronika Perková, Environmental Journalist, Czech Republic
We need to consider other species. We depend on many animals and plants, but we are driving them to extinction by our unsustainable human population.
Richard Grossman, Retired OB-GYN, Researcher, Population Matters-USA, United States
Signatories:
Washington, DC 20037
