EDITORIAL With Friends Like These

Few toilers in the vineyards of population sanity deserve greater credit than family planning program specialists. Against odds, and against as- sorted assaults from right, left, ally and foe, they persevere in offering to women and men the most humane means for limiting family size that our world has ever known. But of this select company it can be truly said, "With the friends they have, who needs enemies?"

The friends who wound are of two camps: Advocates for the availabil- ity of modern contraception who state, nonetheless, that motivation to limit family size is the major determinant of total fertility. And supporters of modern contraception who relegate it, nonetheless, to third place, after progress 1) in the status of women and 2) women's and children's health.

All camps plan to converge on Cairo in September, 1994, for the pop- ulation sequel to Rio de Janeiro's 1992 conference on the environment. Well prior to this date, one hopes, all will rally behind the vital interests they have in common.

Nothing can be gained by rejecting family planning programs and modern contraception. Feminists might prefer widespread use of barrier methods which protect against both the HIV virus and pregnancy. Anthro- pologists might prefer emphasis on motivational factors which impel women and couples to seek out contraceptive services (Abernethy, 1993). But all, surely, concede that hormonal implants or the pill are a better alternative than condoms so long as men reject condoms; and that modern contracep- tion must accompany incentives to limit family size lest couples revert to the myriad, sometimes inhumane, practices which can (and used to) ac- complish that very thing.

From the perspective of all who see population growth as a threat to both biodiversity and the human species itself, the Cairo conference will be studded with enemies. These run the gamut from fossilized nationalists who equate power with population size tO certain religious fundamentalists seeking to serve their Lord. If history is a guide, such opponents of modern

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contraception will wage an awesome fight. Lest they prevail, again, as in Mexico City in 1984, all who work toward a sustainable future must rally round. Traditional family planners offer the common denominator for a workable future. Let them be supported by their friends. Grown-ups know that a strategy can be well worth promoting even if it does not get one all the way home.

Virginia Abernethy

REFERENCE

Abemethy, V. (1993). Population Politics: The Choices that Shape Our Future. NY: Plenum Press/Insight Books.