From Catherine Budgett-Meakin,
It is certainly time to bring discussion of population growth out of the shadows, as William Laurance does (1 September, p 23). He says that educating women is the single most important action needed. We would argue that, while education is absolutely critical, it needs to go hand in hand with the provision of adequate and non-coercive family planning and reproductive health services.
While the was ground-breaking in many ways, budgetary support for family planning services has since fallen away. As a result, many women cannot exercise their human right to choose to plan their families or, indeed, to space their children out.
This point is powerfully made in The Return of the Population Growth Factor – an evidence-based report by the UK’s , published in January 2007.
London, UK
