I am amazed at the number of population growth analyses that mention rape. So far I’ve read, let me see…none. And if they don’t even mention rape, they sure as hell can’t consider it a major causal factor. Do people really believe that millions of women want to be pregnant for five to ten years? Do people really believe that most women would actually consent to child number four when the other three are still under six?
And look! The lower the status of women, the higher the birth rate. Compare Bangladesh’s birth rate of 3.7 with Sweden’s 1.9. Gee. What a coincidence! “Women of low status have less control over their lives, including decisions involving their fertility” (Diana M. Brown, “Population Growth and Human Rights” in Humanist in Canada 30.1:29). Go ahead! Say it! They’re more likely to be raped! That’s what they were bought for!
“Son preference is strong when females are undervalued, so parents go on increasing their family until they have the desired number of sons” (Brown, as above). Parents? Don’t go all gender-inclusive on me now! Men are the ones with the obsession for progeny, their progeny, male progeny.
And also look! Iraq and Gaza top the chart with birth rates of 6.7 and 8.0 respectively. I wonder what the figures were for Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia – I mean really, do we think that after a hard day of castrating the enemy and raping its women, the Man of the House is going to come home to bed and ask first? And don’t forget, this is war! We have to outnumber them! (Why does the Pope come to mind just now?)
“We know from research in many countries that if women were allowed to choose for themselves and had unfettered access to suitable family planning methods, fertility would be falling much faster than it is” (Brown, as above). Go ahead, say it! The population growth problem is due to men – who rape.
So the solution isn’t female literacy or the availability of contraceptives. Government intervention? Yes. But not for a one-child policy. Rather, for an anti-rape policy, husbands included.
