World Congress of Families Outraged by UK Group that Wants to Limit Family Size

China has a much-criticized one-child policy. Iran has a voluntary "two-child" population. Is the UK next? Not if the World Congress of Families can help it.

The World Congress of Families has responded today to a report released last week by a British Group, The Optimum Population Trust, that is advocating a restrictive reproductive policy for Britain. "We've always known the population-planners are totalitarians are heart. But such candor is rare," said Allan C. Carlson, International Secretary of the World Congress of Families.

The Optimum Population Trust called last week for a limit to family size in the UK. While the OPT admits that mandatory one-child policies, such as the one enforced in China, are generally "counter-productive" and "liable to discount human rights", "in extreme situations, where states or regions may be almost uninhabitable through environmental damage, [they] may become unavoidable."

The Optimum Population trust report is straightforward, to say the least. The key points of the report are that every country, even the UK, is in need of a national population policy; that a ""stop at two children" ("replacement" level) or "have one child less" guideline for couples in the UK should be introduced and backed up by the Government and its agencies; sex should not be glamorized and the media should focus on the responsibilities and "frequent 'sheer drudgery' of motherhood"; the "perverse incentives" provided by the UK Government for teenaged girls to become pregnant should be examined and eradicated; and economic and political pressures to increase the birth rate are erroneous and simplistic and should be resisted and exchanged for a decreased birth rate.