Conference Track: Consciousness Raising (First Day)

Proposed Time: 105 min (1 hr, 45 min)

Title: Babies, Burdens and Threats: Current Faces of Population Control

Proposing Organizations: The Committee on Women, Population and the Environment; The Population and Development Program at Hampshire College

Summary: Current population control programs and ideologies remain all too alive and well, although their targets are shifting. This session will bring activists together to analyze current ways that population control is conceived and carried out in the U.S. and globally. Participants will share their own knowledge, experiences and perceptions of population control, and presenters will help frame these issues and lead group discussion to further understanding and identify organizing strategies grounded in social, environmental and reproductive justice.

Format:
1. (20 min) The session will begin interactively, with each participant finding a card taped to their chair containing a phrase related to a current issue or institution that is linked to population control. These will include:
- Immigration
- Welfare reform
- Coercive contraception and sterilization (including CRACK, QS)
- Aging and social security
- National Security
- Prison Industrial Complex
- Environmental issues
- Low birth rates or population “implosion”
- Resource scarcity

Participants will break up into small groups to discuss how they think their card relates to population issues or population control. They will briefly jot this down and place it on a large “map of population control” that will be hanging in the room.

2. (55 min) Five presenters will take 10 minutes each to analyze and present new information about the issues listed above while addressing some of what participants brought up in their small groups.

3. (30 min) Moderated discussion on presentation and issues/questions raised throughout the session. Possible strategies for organizing will be stressed.