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Dysfunctional Population Growth: The Links to Human Suffering

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Alleviating World Suffering

Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series ((SINS,volume 67))

Abstract

Nearly all of the annual population growth of 83 million people (UN, World population prospects: the 2015 revision. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, New York, 2015a) is occurring in developing countries where about 40% of pregnancies are unplanned or unwanted (Sedgh et al., Stud Family Plan 45(3):301–314, 2014). These unintended pregnancies result in either unsafe abortions or births that are high risk and frequently cause the suffering of ill health or premature death. Reproductive health services that provide safe childbirth, modern contraception and safe abortion care are essential to avoiding and relieving suffering caused by risks to health. Reproductive justice also alleviates the detrimental effects of rapid population growth on the welfare of people and on life-supporting planetary ecosystems. Family planning protects and advances human rights and justice, and enhances personal, family and national economic development. In 2014 an estimated 225 million women in developing countries who wanted to avoid a pregnancy were not using an effective contraceptive method because they lacked information, access or face other barriers to using contraception (Singh et al. Adding it up: the costs and benefits of investing in sexual and reproductive health 2014. Guttmacher Institute and United Nations Population Fund, New York, 2014). Access to safe abortion services is even more constrained. To provide family planning to all women in developing countries who want to end or delay childbearing requires an increase from an estimated $4.1 billion from all sources to $9.4 billion annually (Singh et al. Adding it up: the costs and benefits of investing in sexual and reproductive health 2014. Guttmacher Institute and United Nations Population Fund, New York, 2014). With sufficient political will and devotion of adequate financial and other resources the high-fertility developing countries, such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa, could make the transition from high to low birth rates, slow their rapid population growth and achieve social and economic progress.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 335, Box 0744, San Francisco, CA, 94118, USA

    J. Joseph Speidel

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Correspondence to J. Joseph Speidel .

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  1. Faculty of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Ronald E. Anderson

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Speidel, J.J. (2017). Dysfunctional Population Growth: The Links to Human Suffering. In: Anderson, R. (eds) Alleviating World Suffering. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 67. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51391-1_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51391-1_15

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