Should the US government regulate population growth?

No

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by B.J. Tyrrell

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Can we as U.S. citizens invite the government to have regulation over such a personal aspect of our lives as to how many children we should have? Absolutely not. It goes against constitutional freedoms, assumes that the population is not intelligent enough when properly educated to make an informed decision, would create a government policy that would require funding and be open to abuses.

The United States was founded on the idea that certain rights and freedoms belong to the people and not to the government. Although a more accurate statement would be that this country was founded on the idea that the people should have freedom from government rule over their personal beliefs and choices. While this idea at first was treated with hypocrisy considering the atrocities committed against Native Americans and Africans by the U.S. government and with the prejudice shown to different groups at different times that still continues to this day, we should not transgress from the original idea of what America should be. Any policy governing the number of children a person can have is in direct violation of certain freedoms rendered by the Constitution of the United States of America. An example would be freedom of religion. Some religious groups do not advocate artificial birth control or abortion. Neither of which could fail to exist under any government policy towards population regulation which is just a politically correct way to say control. This would not only violate religious rights under the constitution but the right of the pursuit of happiness in general.

Regulating population growth can be done by U.S. citizens themselves with the only input from the government being the availability of family planning. Our government has enforced policies to other nations such as the Global Gag order to undermine their family planning education. This policy denies government aid to foreign family planning agencies if they counsel about abortions or provide abortions. Depending on who is in the white house, this order has been lifted and reinstated. This is another point to make for educating ourselves on our political candidates and their stance on the issues. Handing this over to the government is saying that we are not intelligent enough to make an informed decision. Inform the public of what overpopulation will mean for themselves and for the children they bring into this world. The government already makes the decision for what the majority of our children will learn in school. Tell them you would like to see the affects of over population as a subject along with family planning or better yet parents should talk to there children about this themselves . The public should educate themselves as well. With all the info that can be found at a public library not too mention the internet or even the phonebook which lists a number fro a family planning centers. We already have too much government intrusion into our personal lives post 9\11. Should the Government really have anymore? The media could run public service announcements. Churches could add this topic to the list of responsible living topics that most already minister to their congregations. A perfect example of how lack of education affects number of births is the misleading notion that certain religions such as Catholicism demand large families. This is not true. The Pope himself has said that the church is not against natural forms of birth control such as abstaining during certain times. One of the main reasons for the Catholic church's policy against artificial methods of contraception is to maintain fidelity in a marriage with the partners being to afraid of the consequence of a child being born outside the marriage and the church also feels this policy promotes the man's respect of the woman's body. Most religions do see raising children as a duty, but only when done responsibly with thought and loving action.

Any government policy requires funding to enforce. Do we really need more tax dollars to go to having the government decide personal issues while we mindlessly watch reality TV and wait to be told what to do next? In china ,where there is a one child policy falsely thought by some to be a law, social abuses such as forced abortion and financial penalties go along with the policy. In a nation which in all hopes would move toward a position on abortion which Hilary Clinton put best as safe, legal, never. Should abortion be the only option to a person facing financial penalties from the government, possible loss of income and public ridicule for having an excess child? Or what if we end up with a presidential candidate Obama leading the nation who is pro partial birth abortion. Who will enforce these policies and where will the most enforcement occur? Maximum enforcement would obviously occur in the impoverished communities where people could not afford the fines or live with out the so called financial incentives that would exist for only having x amount of children. What would this mean for the policy being fair to all classes and races. It could not possibly be an equitable policy as rich families could afford to pay penalties and the majority of the impoverished are not white.

We as American citizens are intelligent enough to understand are responsibilities and how our actions will affect the future given proper education and accurate facts along with family planning education and availability we can decide the fate of this countries future in terms of population growth in a positive and responsible fashion without the government regulating number of births for us. Too many lives have been lost fighting for freedom. Let's keep moving forward and not fall back.

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