Fair Start Movement

Author: Fair Start Movement

  • Deadly Heat Waves? Take Action Against Those Most Responsible

    Deadly Heat Waves? Take Action Against Those Most Responsible

    July 2019 is likely to be the hottest month ever on Earth. A heatwave is currently settled over the U.S., and it’s deadly. 

    What’s worse, these extreme temperatures brought about by climate change  trigger an increase in emissions. Our world’s explosion in population and poor family planning has caused a catastrophic feedback loop.

    When we look at climate change, we know human impact is the problem, but we don’t all have the same impact. While there are of course things individuals can and should do to address the problem, the fact is that some people are more responsible than others for the large-scale destruction of our environment. 

    Yes, the average person in a developed nation is partly responsible due to consumerism and technology that puts pressure on the environment. But for generations, CEOs and other power players have opted to suppress science, progress, and environmental stewardship in favor of knowingly pushing the environment toward a point of no return. 

    These people are more responsible for the threat climate change poses to you and your family than most other people on earth.

    Now that we are facing an uncertain future, shouldn’t we ask for the most action from those who are most responsible for the problem?

    Let’s ask the CEOs to fund the most comprehensive and effective thing out there: Fair Start family planning reforms to help reverse the damage they’ve done.

    Here’s how it works: Communities offer substantial resources, like guaranteed minimum incomes, to future parents. Then, in exchange, parents plan smaller families. By doing so, they can invest more in each child and have a smaller impact on the planet than they otherwise would have with a large family. Family planning and climate change are intersectional. An increasingly crowded planet means more impact on the planet.

    Nothing will change if we don’t demand it. Now it’s time to use your voice.

    Sincerely,

    Erika and Willow

    The Phelps-Mathews Family
    The Phelps-Mathews Family

     

    Join Erika and Willow to TAKE ACTION.

    Pick one of these CEOs, or another person who’s profiting off the destruction of our kids’ futures, and urge them to direct their money toward giving kids a Fair Start. They owe it to the next generation to undo the harm they’ve caused. We can’t wait to hear what you do: email us at info@fairstartmovement.org.

     

     

     

  • Kid Activist Asks Surfrider Foundation to Think of the Planet’s Future

    Kid Activist Asks Surfrider Foundation to Think of the Planet’s Future

    Willow Phelps has never shied away from asking the tough questions. That’s a noble trait in anyone, but Willow is only 11 years old. She just sent a letter to the Surfrider Foundation (one of her favorite organizations) about her passion for surfing and protecting the ocean. Willow also asked the organization to stand behind its mission to protect the ocean by embracing an ethic of smaller families. Having Kids stands behind Willow and all kids, who will have to live with the environment we leave for them.

    The Facts are Clear

    Do you have a young activist in your life? Encourage them to contact their own favorite environmental organizations about smaller, sustainable families.

  • Is Growing Up Poor OK?

    Is Growing Up Poor OK?

    Recently a reader left this comment on our Facebook post about Hilaria Baldwin.

    A Facebook comment discusses objections to the idea that only middle-class people should have children, sharing a personal story about a happy childhood in a low-income family and criticizing family planning as resembling eugenics.

    We would like to respond. Firstly, let’s not sugarcoat poverty.  

    41% of U.S. kids are born in or near poverty. Yes, children can be loved and have happy memories. But don’t children also deserve a minimum standard of well-being? Is it ok that children live with hunger, poor health, unsafe neighborhoods, less attention from parents who have to work multiple low wage jobs, and numerous other harms? 

    An infographic titled How Inequality Hurts Kids lists consequences of inequality: physical trauma (abuse, housing insecurity, unsafe neighborhoods), health issues (malnutrition, obesity, lack of care), and brain development impacts.

    health inequality

    Being born poor also means that children do not develop at the same level as their non-poor peers. An unlevel playing field sets them up for a lifetime of struggling, from performance in school to low wage work as adults. Don’t kids deserve better? Shouldn’t they get a fair start?

    e

    A child wearing worn sneakers sits on a wooden surface. Overlaid text reads: Economic Inequality. Children who grow up poor are more likely to be poor as adults. The likelihood increases with each year of poverty. – PBS Frontline.

    Why not help parents delay parenthood until they’re ready so that they can pursue higher education and financial stability? When parents delay parenthood, they give their kids a better chance for better outcomes in health, emotional development, and academic achievement. Decades of research indicates this. 

    But readiness is not only about income. Parents that have abused children in the past and are likely to again are not ready to have more. Wealthy would-be parents may not be ready if they are not prepared to give their kids the time, love, attention, or emotional and familial stability that they need. To the extent that income correlates with political influence, that factors into giving a kids a Fair Start in developing democracies.

    Family planning is the most effective way to reduce poverty and inequality. Early interventions are up to 13 times more effective than after the fact, reactive approaches. Parents who choose to have smaller families – only one or two kids, are able to invest more time and resources in each child, setting them up for great success throughout their lifetimes.

    Imagine a family planning model that considers what future children want instead of only looking at the perspective of would-be parents. When we do that, the premise of the comment totally changes. Children have a right to a fair start in life, and thus have a right to resources to get that fair start. Communities and governments have a duty to provide that through efforts like Guaranteed Minimum Income tied to family planning. Parents can help give them a fair start by delaying parenthood and having smaller families.

    Children and parents do better when parents wait, and have smaller families. It is a win-win. Family planning investments and frameworks like the Fair Start Model make this possible. 

    With regards to the eugenics assertion, eugenics are what we get without the Fair Start model. Like the development of genetically-edited babies in China and now Russia. Unlike the current isolation model of family planning which allows this, the Fair Start model prevents both eugenic and euphenic manipulation because it ensures parents the right to have kids.

    Still have questions? Read our deep dive into the Fair Start family planning model, then ask us!

  • 15 Kids and Animal Cruelty: No One’s Business?

    15 Kids and Animal Cruelty: No One’s Business?

    Do you think family planning is not a community concern? Is it simply to be left to the would-be parents, and that it’s nobody else’s business? Is there is no such thing as being ready to have kids, or not have kids?

    You may want to consider stories like this:

    Horrific stories of abuse began spilling from some of the couple’s 15 children after police began investigating a case that led to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon against an adult child, according to The Associated Press. San Juan County sheriff’s detectives described the Crouch home as a house of horrors where family members were abused, tortured and forced to witness extreme animal cruelty.  A teenage daughter told police that after one of the family dogs gave birth, the mother “took the puppies and put them into a giant pot and boiled them, making all the kids watch,” according to court documents.

    It still remains to be seen whether the allegations are true. But stories like this should make us question the taboo against talking about the need by communities to support better family planning. They have a role to play in helping to ensure that would-be parents wait until they are ready to become parents and plan for smaller families to focus their attention and resources on the children they have. 

    Victims of abuse suffer lifelong trauma that hurts others as well. Their communities and future children are affected. The consequences can manifest as homelessness, criminal behavior, substance abuse, and transmission of abuse onto others. It’s not a private issue. We should all be concerned about preventing abuse.  

    Abuse happens because of poor family planning. We can be proactive rather than reactive. We can create better family planning policies. And in cases of egregious abuse, Fair Start orders can be instituted as a non-coercive solution to ensure that those parents complete rehabilitation before having more kids.

    TAKE ACTION:
    Ask Congress to amend the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) to include a Fair Start Amendment. 

    Email Ranking Member senator Patty Murray

  • Urge Grist to Talk About Sustainable Family Planning

    Urge Grist to Talk About Sustainable Family Planning

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    It’s great that Grist, the environmentally minded media outlet, is recognizing that media isn’t doing their jobs when they spend a lot more time covering news of the royal baby than climate change. But is it time for Grist to aggressively report on better family planning policies as the most comprehensive and effective way to mitigate the variety of harms climate change is causing?  

    Environmentalists have long treated family planning as a taboo subject. It’s glaringly absent from the Green New Deal. But it’s time to break taboo. The businesses that are destroying our environment are breaking it, and urging parents to produce more babies to increase consumption, and to increase a glut of cheap labor and taxpayers for the future. 

    We know how to fix this.

    A better family planning model and policies – with a focus on smaller and more equitable families – are likely the most effective solution to most of the world’s crises today. Remodeling family planning is the most comprehensive and effective way to promote the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and in some cases proves twenty times more effective than other reforms. Simply stated, the current family planning model used by the United Nations is the fundamental source of the problem. It ensures unsustainable population growth in a way that degrades equality, democracy, and our environment.

    This archaic model predates our understanding of climate change, the impact of early childhood development, the way birth conditions and early childhood can exacerbate inequality, etc. Many better models have been proposed, including one by leading political theorist Sarah Conly, and Having Kids’ own model, the Fair Start approach (detailed here).

    Take action:

    Contact Grist CEO here and urge him to help Grist to break the taboo and aggressively report on better family planning policies. It’s the most comprehensive and effective way to mitigate the harms of climate change. 

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  • He helped create the climate crisis. Tell him to make it right for kids.

    He helped create the climate crisis. Tell him to make it right for kids.

    The climate crisis is the biggest threat to your kid’s future. The federal government is making things worse. Ready to step up for your kids and their future? What would you do to help minimize the harm that climate change will cause them? What will you tell them you did to protect them?

    The truth is, some people alive today are much more responsible for climate change than others. Lee R. Raymond, and those members of his family that are benefiting from the money he made denying climate change, are a great example. As a CEO of ExxonMobil, Lee is more responsible for the threat climate change poses to you and your family than most other people on earth.

    The good news is that there are ways to mitigate the harms of climate change, starting with funding the most comprehensive and effective thing out there: Fair Start family planning reforms. The reform model is simple.  Communities offer substantial resources, like guaranteed minimum incomes, to future parents. Then, in exchange, parents plan smaller families where they can invest more in each child. That simple model is the greatest way to mitigate most of the environmental and social threats that face our children. We can apply better family planning in policy, or through individual actions.  

    The Raymond family should use their millions to fund Fair Start reforms. If they did, it would have massive impact beyond just the sheer amount of money spent. It would symbolize and publicize their acknowledgement of the harm they caused. And it would widely highlight better family planning as the most effective way to make amends for that harm.

    Take action: We believe you can contact Lee here. Please politely ask him to use his millions to publicly fund Fair Start family planning reforms. Lee, it’s time to do the right thing for all the harm you caused. 

     

  • Guest Blog: San Francisco Public Health Professional Addresses Family Planning

    Guest Blog: San Francisco Public Health Professional Addresses Family Planning

    Recently a public health professional in California contacted Having Kids to discuss the impact of family planning on the lives of children. This is what they had to say.

    As a public health professional working for the City and County of San Francisco, I am passionate about improving outcomes for at-risk youth and families. Over the years, I have contributed to the evidence-base on what works in mental health and behavioral health care. My greatest interest lies in prevention work, intervening early enough in life to ensure that children get the love and support they need to thrive and become healthy adults. It’s a passion that pervades my personal life, as I plan to foster and adopt my first child – a decision I’ve made for ethical reasons and one that reflects caring for those in need rather than creating new need.

    Child welfare is an issue that has risen to near-crisis level in San Francisco. The hasty decision to close our Juvenile Hall is evidence of a broken system whereby community organizations, child welfare and juvenile justice fail to effectively work together on developing long-term solutions, in one of the wealthiest cities in the world. The affordable housing crisis is driving many in the next generation into the streets.   

    Families are one of the strongest socializing forces in our lives

    Unfortunately, many children come from homes with considerable conflict, putting them at high risk for negative health outcomes. In San Francisco, children and families that come into regular contact with human service agencies, like Child Welfare, Juvenile Probation, and Behavioral Health generally have low socioeconomic status and experience chronic stress related to this. It is common to see children, and their siblings, with mental diagnoses such as oppositional defiant disorder, major depression, and PTSD. 

    A substantiated allegation of abuse or neglect can result in a child being removed from their home, however, this is often too late as trauma can permanently impact developing minds. Also, removal from the home brings additional challenges. Children removed from the home may already have attachment issues due to a lack of a stable family environment and they are now being asked to trust multiple providers (case workers, doctors, foster parents, probation officers, etc.). Given the lack of consistent relationships in their lives, they do not know who they trust, and lose a sense of identity and place, putting them in a very vulnerable position for exploitation. In fact, 60% of all sex trafficking victims have a history of involvement with the child welfare system.  Oakland is considered a national hub for child-sex trafficking.

    Similarly, juvenile justice-involved youth can be removed from the home. They tend to be older and more criminally sophisticated, and it is therefore challenging to find foster/resource families. Instead, youth are placed in group home facilities, or, depending on the nature of the crime, a more secure facility. In California, the cost to maintain a youth in a group home facility is approximately $10-12K per month with negative outcomes such as running away, early mortality, being in and out of the prison system in adulthood, mental health and behavioral health issues, and chronic homelessness. Teens and youth with multiple placements present a significant barrier to reunification.

    All of this creates a pipeline for human trafficking, and horrific cases of domestic violence. I’ve seen the moms and kids stuck in this world with my own eyes. And I know the problem began long ago, in families where the children were being set up for failure. The opioid crisis has only amplified to levels that are breaking public health and child welfare systems around the country.  

    A big challenge is how can we intervene early enough to impact children’s lives so that they can thrive and become healthy, contributing members of society? A major challenge is keeping up with the pace of this public health crisis whereby so many children and their siblings are experiencing early neglect and trauma, essentially becoming pawns of the “cradle to prison” pipeline.

    Family planning is prevention work

    By changing the way we plan families, we take prevention work to another level, finding ways to encourage all parents to have smaller, more equitable and better-planned families, thereby reducing the scale of this crisis and re-purposing resources to focus on evidence-based services that improve long-term outcomes. Programs such as the Perry Preschool Program which focuses on the developmental growth of at-risk children and resulted in a 7–10% per year return on investment based on increased school and career achievement, as well as reduced costs in remedial education, health, and criminal justice system expenditures.

    As a society, we need to create policies that uphold the rights of children. Smarter family planning leads to better outcomes. Period. It is time to take a long-range prevention approach and embrace better family planning models like Fair Start.

  • Why Animal, Enviro, Social Justice Orgs Should Support Better Family Planning

    Why Animal, Enviro, Social Justice Orgs Should Support Better Family Planning

    Do you work with a social justice organization, like an environmental, child welfare, animal protection, or human rights group? If so, one of the best ways to further your organization’s mission in by promoting Fair Start family planning.

    Why?

    For example – many animal protection advocates focus on changing diets as a way to protect animals from the horrors of factory farming and wildlife from the horrors of climate change that is partially driven by factory farming. The impact of this approach has been completely overridden by recent population growth, which is set to continue.

    Isn’t it time to work upstream? 

    • Fair Start family planning is not just effective. It is comprehensively effective, or intersectional. It aligns environmentalism, animal protection, and human rights in one unifying campaign to reform the way we plan families. This isn’t just a matter of using words like intersectional to appear thoughtful. The creation of future generations is something that connects us all.

    Social justice organizations could magnify their impact exponentially by including family planning reform in their programming. For some organizations, there is the option of including Fair Start advocacy in their lawful civil disobedience programs. How could they do this specifically?

    In addition to current work organizations could lawfully target entities like Exxon who are harming untold numbers of children and animals through their impact on climate and other aspects of the environment, and who have special obligations to fund Fair Start family planning systems given the harm they have caused.

    It’s time to create fundamental change, and be effective and intersectional at the same time. Social justice work starts with people, and in the long run, people start with family planning. It’s time for to ensure a fair start for all kids. Learn more at HavingKids.org. 

    TAKE ACTION:
    Join us in urging the U.N. Secretary-General to issue a statement recommending sustainable family planning for World Population Day. RSVP to our event, help us share the event, and send him a message here.

     

  • Consumption or Family Size: Which Matters for Climate?

    Consumption or Family Size: Which Matters for Climate?

    Care about consumption and its impact on the planet? Many argue that consumption, not population is the real climate crisis. But the truth is, consumption and people are inextricably linked. We have to address both.

    Demand isn’t created by dirty companies. Demand comes from people. Focusing only on carbon, plastic, and such plays right into the hands of global corporations like Unilever, Walmart and Amazon who depend on increasing birth rates to fuel spending for their products. Yes, bad industrial players must be held accountable. And we’re on our way to doing that. But if we’re only addressing carbon output, we’re ignoring the source of the problem: unsustainable population growth. Choosing to have a smaller family however, is the best way to mitigate our impact on the planet.  

    Looking only at emissions also ignores several critically important issues including water scarcity, mineral depletion, deforestation, and habitat loss. As the Center for Biological Diversity explains,“If we address one without the other, the end result will still be humans continuing to take more than our fair share from the planet.”

    The Center for Biological Diversity also stated:

    “A 2009 study of the relationship between population growth and global warming determined that the “carbon legacy” of just one child can produce 20 times more greenhouse gas than a person will save by driving a high-mileage car, recycling, using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs, etc. Each child born in the United States will add about 9,441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the carbon legacy of an average parent. The study concludes, “Clearly, the potential savings from reduced reproduction are huge compared to the savings that can be achieved by changes in lifestyle.”

    One of the study’s authors, Paul Murtaugh, warned that: “In discussions about climate change, we tend to focus on the carbon emissions of an individual over his or her lifetime. Those are important issues and it’s essential that they should be considered. But an added challenge facing us is continuing population growth and increasing global consumption of resources. . . . Future growth amplifies the consequences of people’s reproductive choices today, the same way that compound interest amplifies a bank balance.”

    The consumption vs. population debate.

    The finger pointing is generally toward high fertility rates in developing countries and high consumption in developed countries. However, it’s not an either/or scenario. It’s an evolving situation. As nations develop, their standard of living increases along with consumption rates. We are on track for exponential population growth paired with a drastic increase in consumption. Taking an incomplete approach is a recipe for disaster.

    Is consumption outpacing population growth?
    It is in some cases. Consider that food demand outpaces sustainable supply. According to the 2018 Global Agricultural Productivity Report, “for the fifth straight year, global agricultural productivity growth is not accelerating fast enough.” How can we continue to feed a growing population without a global effort for sustainable population planning?

    The U.N. has also warned that one million species are at risk of disappearing due to habitat loss, among other human activities, in the sixth mass extinction already underway. “A quarter of catalogued animal and plant species are already being crowded, eaten or poisoned out of existence,” its IPBES Global Assessment Report report states. Should we be concerned then about consumption or crowding? The answer is both – as confirmed by a UN Report released in May. 

    We have the power to determine the future for our kids.
    Most of us agree that a crowded planet is not something we want. But we fail to make the connection that our decision to have a large or small family is what determines how the world will look. The Fair Start Model is one way that we can work together to ensure that all kids get what they need to thrive – including a habitable planet. Let’s save room for animals, for nature, and for our kids to enjoy the only planet we have by planning smaller families.

    TAKE ACTION:
    Join us in urging the U.N. Secretary-General to issue a statement recommending sustainable family planning for World Population Day. RSVP to our event, help us share the event, and send him a message here.