Washington D.C. (02 February 2009) – Sir. Jonathon Porritt, chair of the United Kingdom's Sustainable Development Commission, is recommending abortion and contraception to curb the UK's population, calling parents of more than two children "irresponsible."
"We're watching the UK set the stage for enforced population control in the same vein, and out of the same philosophy, as China's heinous one-child policy," said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League. "Given that the United States follows closely on the cultural heels of the UK, we can see from this the eventual coming of enforced population control in the United States."
Porritt, one of Britain's leading environmental advisers, was widely quoted Feb 1.
I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate … I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible.
Porritt's statement comes at a time when Britain's aging population is threatening the country's work force. Britain's birth rate of 1.7 children per woman is well below replacement level.
Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe told the Telegraph that "… at a time when we have all the worries of too elderly a population, depending on fewer and fewer people of working age, it seems an absolutely ludicrous proposition."
"Tragically," remarked Sedlak, "this ludicrous proposition is all too real for the millions of Chinese citizens living under the brutal regime of forced abortion and 'family planning.' Now that the specter of forced population control looms over the United Kingdom, we in the U.S. must prepare to fight the encroaching movement of environmental tyranny that is spreading around the world."
American Life League was cofounded in 1979 by Judie Brown. It is the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States and is committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to death. For more information or press inquiries, please contact Katie Walker at 540.659.4942.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
- The Telegraph: Gov't Green Guru Calls for Two Child Limit (2 February 2009) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/4424856/Government-green-guru-Sir-Jonathon-Porritt-calls-for-two-child-limit.html
- National Statistics: Fertility http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?ID=951
- The Guardian: Go Green, Have Fewer Kids, Says Environmentalist (2 February 2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/feb/01/population-environment-porritt
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