Philippines: No to Population Control, Yes to Authentic Development - Part 2

Steven Mosher
August 8, 2016
Reproduced with Permission
Population Research Institute

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to "champion contraception…to reduce poverty by 25 percent in six years." "I only want three children for every family," Duterte stated publicly, "I'm a Christian, but I'm a realist so we have to do something with our overpopulation." Having promoted, as former mayor of Davao, sexual "education," free contraception and free access to tubal ligation, Duterte now says that "a more aggressive approach" is necessary because "our resources cannot meet the demand."

Is he right?


Antinatalism: public enemy #1

How can anybody believe that innocent unborn babies are a menace to the economy and the environment? Is pregnancy is an epidemic disease which requires the "medicine" of pharmaceutic contraception and surgical abortion, paid by a "health" system?

Antinatalism and its daughter 'overpopulation' are ideologies foreign to the baby-friendly Filipino culture and shows why "cultural colonialism" is the global enemy #1. As with all ideologies, this idea is false, un-scientific and detached from the reality of human nature.

Over -population means under-nourished, under-educated and under-treated population - a contradiction in terms. It is people who produce supply and generate demand and growth. What is the value of the urban land of a ghost town? Practically nothing. Poverty is not caused by excess of working minds and arms but by an unfair system that ruins human capital potential, treats people like garbage and then complains about those "parasites" that consume resources without producing enough. Human capital was the key to post-war recovery of Germany and Japan. Human capital is the real wealth of nations.

Artificial contraceptives: public enemy #2

The Philippine Statistics Authority's "2000 Family Planning Survey" (FPS) found that "married women with three children have the highest [Contraceptive Prevalence Rate] (57.9%), followed closely by those with four children (57.6%). As expected, childless women have the lowest (3.9 %)."

The 2000 FPS also found that "contraceptive use among married women peaks at ages 35 to 39 years (54.4%) and is lowest at ages 15 to 19 years (22.9%)."


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