Category: Population

Image courtesy of Karina McLeod and the Caselberg Trust

Population Poetry

            For years I have known that what I write is too intellectual, too wordy, too preachy. I have sought poetry on aspects of human population, and finally found a few poems worth sharing. Please read slowly and meditate. With thanks to Karen Shragg and Roger Martin, who both gave permission for me to use their work. More poetry next month!

Richard

Eve and the Fall by Roger Martin   In ancient Africa, the Lord of Earth, The Gaia, keeper of the sacred flame Of life upon this favoured speck of dust, Spoke to the ape-girl, Lucy, in a dream.   “You have done well. That brain is growing fast. Time to become a human. Listen hard, And tell the others, and the ones to come.   Throughout this Eden I have given you You shall be matriarch of beasts undreamt. They’ll live a life of eagles, always fed, And see all things, and roam the earth and sky, And read the seas and stars, and want for nought, Provided that they follow this command. Already you can feed of plants and flesh, And only two fruits grow beyond your reach. Both now I give you. But remember this: You must eat both together, or else none. The tree of Knowledge has the sweetest fruit; The fruit of Wisdom’s bitter, green and hard. But if you gorge upon the first alone, Without the second fruit to balance it, Your offspring shall be locusts in the spring. They’ll breed, and swarm, and feed, till, numberless, They’ve stripped the land of everything that grows, And, Earth once made a desert, die in heaps. That brain will free you from my disciplines Of claw and dearth and sickness for a time. Control your numbers only, now you can, And Earth shall always be your Paradise.”   And Lucy, awe-struck, grunted in her sleep; And half-awoke, and jabbered to her mate, And told him all that lingered from the dream. “We’ll eat the fruit of Knowledge, and we’ll live Like eagles, and like locusts numberless. The Earth is ours.” Working Upstream by Karen I. Shragg   Tick Tick Tick Every second, the sound Of new passengers Added to the spaceship Long past being able to sustain them Work at the problem’s source Where the stream begins at just a trickle Tick Tick Tick It takes courage to work upstream And stay there When the world is pushing us Further down To focus on cures Instead of causes At results Instead of actions Tick Tick Tick It takes wisdom to know That all will be futile If we don’t work at the source That’s where the possibility of success lives And where social justice resides Tick Tick Tick Don’t let them tell you You don’t have a heart because You work upstream Like the Wizard had to show the Tinman Those who work upstream have always had the biggest heart of all.

©Richard Grossman, MD 2015

PS: Karen Shragg is also the author of a new book: “Move Upstream–A Call to Solve Overpopulation”

 

 

 

I suggest going to an article in the Washington Post that not only compliments this column, but also has an excellent graphic showing the effectiveness of the Colorado experiment. Here’s the link:

www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/12/how-colorados-teen-birthrate-dropped-40-in-four-years/

Can you think of any state-funded program that can save seven dollars for every dollar spent? Voluntary family planning programs for teens and young women offer that wide a margin of benefit!

Indeed, family planning can do much more than just save money. It has the ability to change the prospects for people, especially young women. By allowing people to postpone parenthood, they have the opportunity to mature emotionally, complete their education and improve job skills. An experiment, the Colorado Family Planning Initiative (subsidized by a generous grant) has shown the benefit of making effective contraception available to all women.

OK, I have to admit, women bear an unjust proportion of responsibility for family planning. That is the way it is now; I hope that the future will hold more in the way of birth control for men other than just condoms and vasectomy.

An anonymous donor (reported to be the Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation) gave money to fund contraception for women who otherwise couldn’t afford it. This program started in 2009 and finished this summer. It paid about $5 million each year for more than 36,000 women to receive contraceptive information, services and supplies.

Fortunately, during this interval the need for funding decreased because the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) picked up perhaps 25,000 Colorado women who didn’t have prior coverage. Unfortunately there are still many people who don’t have any insurance coverage and cannot afford contraception. They are especially unable to pay for Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptive (LARC) methods that are so effective, but have an initial cost of about $1000. LARCs include four IntraUterine Devices (IUDs) and one hormonal implant.

In the long run, LARCs are actually less expensive than less reliable methods if you look at the monthly cost over their lifespan of 3 to 10 years. DepoProvera® is almost as effective, but this shot has to be administered every three months, so requires more action on the user’s part.

How did this program save money? If they had gotten pregnant, many of these women would have been on Medicaid or other state-supported programs. Their children would also likely be on taxpayer-funded programs, including children of undocumented women who are citizens as soon as they are born in the USA. The estimate of the amount of money the grant saved just for obstetrical services is $79 million.

The most important savings is in the decrease in the teen pregnancy rate. It is true that all over the country fewer teens became pregnant during the past few years, so not all of the decrease in our state is due to the Initiative. However, Colorado’s teen pregnancy rate dropped an outstanding 40% from 2009 to 2013, largely because of this Initiative.

No one is in favor of unintended pregnancies. This Initiative illustrates what we have known all along: the best way to prevent abortion is with good contraception—and this has been proven over the past 5 years. From 2009 to 2013 the abortion rate for Colorado teens fell 42%, and for women aged 20 to 24 it also dropped significantly.

Good things come to an end, and the Initiative’s grant ended in July. Don Coram, a Republican state representative from Montrose, tried to garner support to continue the program—but unfortunately failed. In stepped private foundations to assure that funding is available.

So far 12 foundations have collaborated to pay $2 million during the next year to continue the Initiative. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to provide services to all who need them, but it is hoped that more funding will follow. Optimistically the State Legislature will see that this program is saving money and empowering young women to become healthier, more productive citizens and will finally fund this program. And maybe then other states will then get on the bandwagon to follow Colorado’s lead by funding similar programs.

Dr. Eve Espey is chair of the department of OB-GYN in Albuquerque where I trained many years ago. Her paper “Feminism and the Moral Imperative for Contraception” documents the importance of contraception in the modern world. Not only does family planning provide social benefits to individuals and to their societies, but also it saves lives. Spacing the births of babies promotes healthier children and decreases infant deaths. “It is estimated that, in 2008,” she writes “44% (272,040) of maternal deaths were prevented in 172 developing countries owing to use of contraceptives….” Not only does contraception save money; globally it saves a quarter million women’s lives yearly!

© Richard Grossman MD, 2015