Under pressure from population control interests, some secular environmentalists have endorsed so-called “family planning” platforms that include abortion and misleading information that denigrates the value of flourishing families. Other groups are considering these positions, which run counter to Christian values and fundamental human rights.

We strongly denounce the appeal to population control as a part of environmental care because we believe that people are the center of God’s creation and redemption, and that human life is a gift to the world and not its scourge.

In addition, the fear of overpopulation is overblown. Total fertility rates (the number of babies a woman will have in her lifetime) are already declining precipitously nearly everywhere on earth. Families have fewer children as they grow more prosperous, as they access better healthcare, as infant mortality declines, and as their lives become more stable. Demographic research shows tht "family planning" campaigns have little or no impact on these decisions. The Economist magazine recently concluded that there are no interventions short of forced sterilizations and mandatory abortions that would cause birth rates to drop much faster than they’re already dropping.

Therefore, we are launching the Pro-Life Environmental Action Campaign to:

1. Assert that human life from conception throughout natural life is a sacred gift of God and the protection of human life is the first value of environmental stewardship.

2. Encourage those involved in environmental care to spurn the pressure to add "population control" to their platform and programs.

3. Urge environmental groups who have embraced population control to drop this destructive and counter-productive position from their platform and programs.

4. Develop the resources, communications, and broad support necessary to accomplish
these objectives.

Campaign direction

Terra Dei Institute for Environmental Policy

Campaign Committee

Rusty Pritchard
Jonathan Merritt
Jim Jewell