The 300 Millionth American: The Bigger Picture

Washington, DC - October 16, 2006

This week, the United States will welcome the birth of its 300 millionth citizen. The birth of a healthy baby into a family that wants it is always a cause for celebration. This landmark event has caused each of us to reflect on the state of our nation and the implications of population growth on issues ranging from congestion to quality of life to energy consumption. It took forty years for the U.S. population to jump from 200 million to 300 million—but what would it be like if our country’s population had instead doubled in that time? What if, instead of being a rich, industrialized country, we were already struggling to feed, clothe and educate our children?

These questions aren’t hypothetical for countries like Niger, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Uganda. These developing countries are already struggling to provide food, clean water and basic health care for their citizens. Rapid population growth is further overwhelming their strained financial and natural resources.

This doesn’t have to be the case. Tragically, more than 200 million women in the developing world desperately want to plan the size of their families but are unable to obtain the contraceptives to do so. These are the same contraceptives that American women can buy in a drug store.

Family planning and reproductive health services are fundamental, basic human rights for every woman and couple in the world. Unfortunately, the U.S. government doesn’t seem to recognize its continued importance, as funding for family planning overseas has fallen in recent years—now totaling less than 2 percent of all U.S. development assistance—despite its proven track record and relatively low costs.

Perhaps the best birthday gift we can give to our newest American is ensuring that all women, regardless of where they live, have the services and education they need to space their pregnancies and to give birth to healthy, wanted children.

Population Action International (PAI) works to improve individual well-being and preserve global resources by mobilizing political and financial support for population, family planning and reproductive health policies and programs.