Open letter to journalists: Panic over low fertility is a distraction from the true crisis

Today’s dominant population-themed narrative revolves around declining fertility and the supposed threats it presents to economies. These stories are often alarmist, warning of a “baby bust” and “population collapse,” without acknowledging that our global population of over 8 billion is still growing and, according to UN projections, not likely to peak until the 2080s, at over 10 billion. The preoccupation with low fertility in the media has seemingly displaced concern over continued high fertility in areas where extreme gender inequality and other barriers to reproductive health and rights persist. These barriers are now being exacerbated by the Trump administration’s cruel foreign aid cuts.

We, the undersigned, call on journalists to refrain from amplifying low fertility panic, and to instead help raise awareness of the critical need to advance women’s and girls’ empowerment – a prerequisite to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Facts that highlight the true crisis:

• 259 million women worldwide have an unmet need for modern contraception.
• Almost half of partnered women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have no decision-making power over their own bodies.
• One in five girl children are married before turning 18.
• Around half of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended.
• Since 2022, cases of conflict-related sexual violence have risen by 50%.
• A political backlash against women’s rights, combined with devastating funding cuts, is leading to the denial of contraceptive care for millions of women. The Trump administration’s family planning aid cuts alone are estimated to lead to 1 million unintended pregnancies and 34,000 preventable maternal deaths per year in LMICs.
• In the 80 countries most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, population is growing on average at twice the global rate, meaning hundreds of millions of people and counting will be exposed to worsening food and water shortages, as well as deadly heatwaves and floods, among other disasters.
• Global population growth, alongside increasing consumption, remains a primary driver of our biggest environmental crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource depletion.

Quotes:

“Alarmism over declining birthrates in the Global North is unwarranted. While population aging can bring socioeconomic challenges, there are available policy levers that would significantly lessen them, such as improving the employment rate, investment in preventive healthcare and education, and tax reforms. The factors that underlie continued high fertility in many areas are a lot more concerning, and urgently need addressing by boosting funding for international family planning and women’s rights.”

– John Seager, President & CEO, Population Connection, United States

“The real crisis is not too few babies, but too many women denied the power to decide if, when, and how to have them. Until we guarantee reproductive rights and empower women everywhere, we cannot hope to solve the interconnected challenges of poverty, climate change, and biodiversity loss.”

– Sara Inés Lara, President & Founder, Women for Conservation, Colombia

“Investment in family planning is not just a health priority, but also an environmental and development necessity. Unplanned birth exacerbates high population growth, which impacts negatively on sustainable natural resource use, which in turn regresses development.”

– Dr. Edu Effiom, Director General, Cross River State Council on Climate Change, Nigeria

“Having access to contraceptives gives women control over their bodies, and allows men to balance the family budget. This reduces their dependence on natural resources for food and fuelwood, helping to protect endangered species, decrease biodiversity loss and prevent climate change, ultimately creating a more secure future for people, animals and the environment.”

– Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder & CEO, Conservation Through Public Health, Uganda

“Falling birthrates is one of the most positive trends in recent human history that we should not only be embracing but working to accelerate given the gains in reproductive agency and gender equality it represents. The only ones framing this trend as a crisis are those who rely on women’s reproductive labor to grow the population for economic, nationalist, and ethnocentric agendas. We are in a state of extreme ecological overshoot that is threatening our collective future. We must abandon our pursuit of endless growth and adjust and adapt to this deep change with new thinking that respects ecological boundaries and advances social justice.”

– Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director, Population Balance, United States

“Women should have the children they want, no more, no less. In Venezuela where we work in family planning, women vehemently ask for this simple reproductive freedom.”

– Steven Bloomstein, President & Co-founder, Turimiquire Foundation, Venezuela

“The bottom line is that we’re still adding between 63 and 85 million people every year to a very finite, stressed planet, with a fast-growing middle class that deserves to have enough in life. The alarmist narrative defeats justice: human rights, children’s rights, women’s rights, and Earth rights. Call this self-serving narrative for what it is: a short-sighted way to build armies of consumers, soldiers, and voters for personal profit, at the expense of women, children, other species, and all of our futures.”

– Dr. Phoebe Barnard, Global Change Scientist, France

“Two mistakes journalists often make about low fertility, both of which contribute to needless alarm: 1) “Replacement fertility” does not, as often claimed, produce a stable population. It merely sets the stage for a future stability that could occur (possibly not for decades) if the fertility rate continued at that rate or a lower one, absent net immigration. Population momentum (the result of many young people giving birth, more than older people dying) and net immigration often keep a population growing for many years after fertility reaches or dips below an average of 2.1 children per woman. 2) Demographers do not “estimate” future population size — you can’t estimate a crowd that has not yet shown up. Demographers can only project future population — what would happen with specific trends if there are no surprises in the future. And there are always surprises, meaning journalists — especially if their skepticism instinct is as strong as it should be — should be skeptical of demographers’ projections.”

– Robert Engelman, Senior Fellow, Population Institute, United States

“If politicians truly cared about children and their well-being, they wouldn’t be asking, ‘How can we have more children in our country? How can we push women to have more babies?’ They would be asking, ‘How can we help families raise children so that they are happy and healthy? How can we create a safe environment for them so they can grow to be honest people? How can we take good care of the existing children who need our help? How can we help mothers and fathers relieve the burden of childcare and work expectations?’”

– Veronika Perková, Environmental Journalist, Czech Republic

“We need to consider other species. We depend on many animals and plants, but we are driving them to extinction by our unsustainable human population.”

– Richard Grossman, Retired OB-GYN, Researcher, Population Matters-USA, United States

Signatories:

John Seager, President & CEO, Population Connection, United States

Sara Inés Lara, President & Founder,  Women for Conservation, Colombia

Edu Effiom, Director General, Cross River State Council on Climate Change, Nigeria

Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder & CEO, Conservation Through Public Health, Uganda

Eleanor Unsworth, Executive Director, WINGS, Guatemala

Michelle Cude, Executive Director, Nasaruni Academy for Maasai Girls, Kenya

Steven Bloomstein, President & Co-founder, Turimiquire Foundation, Venezuela

William Johnson, Founder, Solidarity for Her Education and Empowerment Organization (SHEEO), Tanzania

Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director, Population Balance, United States

Phoebe Barnard, Global Change Scientist, France

Robert Engelman, Senior Fellow, Population Institute, United States

Joseph Merz, Chairman, Merz Institute, New Zealand

Abebe Kebede, Executive Director, Consortium of Reproductive Health Associations, Ethiopia

Maxime Bivina, Executive Director, Réseau Camerounais des Adolescents et Jeunes positifs (ReCAJ+), Cameroon

Alexia Fanou, President, Jeunesse Regard et Actions (JRA), Benin

Gbato Woueuga Julienne, Co-Coordinator, Alliance des Jeunes Champions d’Afrique Francophone (AJCAF-AS), Côte d’Ivoire

Hilary Gbetoenonmon, Second Deputy, Association Mairies des Jeunes du Bénin, Benin

Christian Ouedraogo, Advocacy Manager, Médecins du Monde, Burkina Faso

Aidah Babirye, Communications, Reproductive Health Uganda, Uganda

Daisy Kandole, Project Officer, Reproductive Health Uganda, Uganda

Comlan Agbozo, Executive Director, Association Béninoise pour la Promotion de la Famille (ABPF), Benin

Issoufa Harour Harou, Ministry of Health, Niger

Dereje Bayisa, Health Professional, Promos Health Bureau, Ethiopia

Shailesh Kumar, State Health Society, Government of India, India

Salamatou Issa, Director of Family Planning, Health Ministry, Niger

Guindo Aoua, Chief of Family Planning Services, Health Ministry & President, Association des Sage-femmes du Mali, Mali

Geilee Skandakumar, Advocacy and Communications Consultant, The Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka (FPASL), Sri Lanka

Abhishek Bageshwar, Business Analyst, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), India

Frannie MacKenzie, Research Officer, University of Toronto, Canada

Manuela Costa, Researcher, Universidad de la República, Uruguay

María Figueroa, Psychologist, Las Thias, Panama

Arun Kumar Nair, Director, Ipas Development Foundation, India

Juan Vargas, Gynecologist, Profamilia, Colombia

Alvaro Bermejo, Director, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), United Kingdom

Marilena Márquez, Medical Sexologist, Asociación Colombiana de Salud Pública, Colombia

David Lopez-Carr, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, United States

Lynne Gaffikin, Adjunct Professor, Stanford University, United States

Jostas Mwebembezi, Executive Director, Rwenzori Center for Research and Advocacy, Uganda

Veronika Perková, Environmental Journalist, Social Impact Storyteller & University Lecturer, Czech Republic

Warren Bell, Family Physician, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Canada

Richard Grossman, Retired OB-GYN & Researcher, Population Matters-USA, United States

Sarah Warsh, OB-GYN Nurse Practitioner, Denver Health, United States

Angie Fellers LeMire, CEO, Community Centered Reproductive Health (CORE), United States

Ricardo Codjo, Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights Activist, Benin

Contact: Olivia Nater, Communications Manager, Population Connection, onater@populationconnection.org, +1 202-974-7739