Filed under: Public Health | Tags: Birthrates, Contraceptives, Failed States, Family-Planning, Foreign Policy magazine, Gender Inequality, Nicholas Kristof, Peace Corps, Population Growth, Public Health, United Nations
If a woman is too poor to take care of one child, what is she doing with seven? That’s my question. It’s not out of reproach, it’s just that I’ve seen my share of too-poor-for-a-single-child women carrying for five, six, seven, and yes, even twelve children. And then there’s often a bulge in her belly suggesting she isn’t done. It’s always terribly depressing, because I know child one through seven didn’t have it easy, and number eight likely won’t buck the trend.
The consequences of sky-high birthrates are disastrous and have been able to capture the attention of many. Foreign Policy magazine uses it as one of its metrics to calculate its “Failed Sate Index,” ranking the nation-states closest to collapse (How fun!). The threat from what Foreign Policy calls “Demographic Pressures” is straightforward: the more children birthed means the more unemployed, uneducated, hopeless young men (and women), which means instability lying in wait. It also means – at both a family and nation level – a smaller piece of an already small pie.
Nicholas Kristof, the New York Times columnist, recently wrote an Op-Ed titled “Pregnant (Again) and Poor” chronicling the struggles of Nahomie Nercure, a mother of ten right here in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. And a mother of ten at just 30 years of age. He says, with women like Nahomie birthing in the double digits, there simply is no hope for the fight against global poverty. (more…)
