Fair Start Movement

Category: Calls to Action & Petitions

  • Mother of Eight, Rachel Campos-Duffy Denies Climate Change. Take Action for Kids.

    Mother of Eight, Rachel Campos-Duffy Denies Climate Change. Take Action for Kids.

    Does life imitate art? Fox News contributor an former Real World cast member Rachel Campos-Duffy evokes a scene from the famous movie, Idiocracy. As a mother of eight, she denies climate change and openly promotes the worst way to intensify it – more irresponsible family planning.

    Fact: The root cause of most of our environmental and social crises, like climate change, massive inequality, child abuse, terrorism and social conflict, and the decline of democracy, come from one root source: poor and unsustainable family planning.

    Is it fair that many of us have to worry about having one because people like her selfishly have eight?

    Is it fair to put the burden of dealing with the fallout of her reckless behavior on her kids, as she suggests?

    We all love our kids. We want the best for them. We have an obligation to ensure a future world that is safe and secure for them, filled with people who were born and raised with everything they need to work together for a better world. We should confront people that threaten our children and their future by promoting irresponsible and unsustainable family planning. We should not let the future for our kids be defined by people like Rachel Campos-Duffy.

    Take action:

    Tweet Rachel @RCamposDuffy, and ask her to answer these simple questions: Do all kids deserve a fair start in life and how would you ensure that? Is having eight kids sustainable? What steps are you taking to make the future world safe and secure for you own kids?

    Rachel is impacting the world we all share, and the future our kids will inherit. Help hold her accountable and urge her to engage on and debate the issues she raised.

  • Help HK Call Out Those Criticizing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Family Planning Comments

    Help HK Call Out Those Criticizing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Family Planning Comments

    Last week many news outlets, like Fox News, attacked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for breaking the long-standing taboo and asking whether we need better, and sustainable, family planning in the United States. Read our letter to AOC here.  Erika Mathews, Executive Director of the national child-protection organization Having Kids, is urging supporters to find and politely engage directly with AOC’s critics, by simply asking them a few questions either by email, social media, or in-person interviews. Her critics are easily identifiable online – just google “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” and “children,” and if you need help finding a particular person, just email us at info@fairstartmovement.org

    HK WILL PUBLISH AND PUBLICIZE A SUMMARY OF THE BEST ENGAGEMENT.

    Erika urges supporters to engage with AOCs critics using a few simple questions. She had this to say. “It’s time to have an open and honest conversation about the future, which will mostly be determined by the family planning decisions people make today. Smaller families are the best way to mitigate climate change and other environmental crises – are AOC’s critics saying we should not do what works best? Rich kids become rich adults and poor kids become poor adults. Better family planning can level the playing field. Are AOC’s critics against a level playing field? Nearly 700,000 kids are abused each year in the U.S. Are AOC’s critics suggesting we should arbitrarily push random people to have kids, people that might not be ready to be good parents? Is that the future we want?”

    It’s your future. It’s your kids future. Do we really want it filled with billions more people who did not get what they needed growing up?

    Here are the facts: The most effective way to address many of the impacts on our environment and other species, like climate change, is by choosing smaller families. Yes, it’s up to 20 times more effective than changing diet or forms of transportation. By 2100 world population could vary by billions of people, depending on whether the average woman in the world today has one child more or one child fewer in her lifetime. The science of early childhood development shows the disproportionate impact the beginning of our lives has on the rest of our lives. This holds true, among other things, for economic inequality. Better family planning is the best way to reduce inequality. Other interventions are simply too late.

    According to Erika, “We can change the direction the world is headed. We just have to start a serious conversation. AOC is right to break the taboo.”

    Having Kids is a 501(c)3 nonprofit nonprofit organization dedicated to reforming family planning by replacing parent-centered family planning models with the human rights-based and child-first Fair Start model.

  • Tough Questions for HHS. Demand Answers.

    Tough Questions for HHS. Demand Answers.

    As children return to school, many will be participating in the federal National School Lunch Program. The NSLP provides free or reduced price meals and serves 20 million lunches and 11.6 million breakfasts daily. The start of a new school year is good news for the 30 million kids who will have a guaranteed meal – sometimes their only meal. Those statistics are jarring. What can we do to prevent kids from facing hunger in the first place?

    The stated mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is to “enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans”. It got us thinking. And we have a few questions for HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

    1. How does the HHS current family planning modeling actually assure at least a minimum level of well-being for each child born in the United States?

    2. How does that level of well-being reflect every child’s right to a fair start in life, with equal opportunities in life for wealthy kids and poor kids?

    3. How does the HHS current family planning modeling account for the impacts of growth on the natural environment and communities, including exacerbation of climate change and urban gridlock?

    4. How does the HHS current family planning modeling account for the demands that growth places on social service systems like education, nutrition, and healthcare?

    5. How does the HHS current family planning model account for the impact of growth on the democratic processes of the United States, and the ability for all citizens to have a meaningful and equal voice in those processes?

    Want answers as much we do? Add your name here. 

  • Earth Overshoot Day – Take Action Now

    Earth Overshoot Day – Take Action Now

    August 1, 2018 is Earth Overshoot Day.

    Worried that the federal government is actually making things worse, and hurting your kids’ future? You would be right. But you can take action by urging your local government, your town, city or county, to do the most effective thing possible to mitigate climate change and protect the environment.

    Between now and the end of the year, consider using the template below to urge your local government to take a position on the need for better family planning. Send them the draft, and then lobby them hard to do their jobs and protect you, your family, and your future.

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    Resolution acknowledging that Earth Overshoot Day 2018 is August 1, 2018 and Affirming [add your local government reference here] Commitment to Move Back the Date of Earth Overshoot Day And Provide Affordable and Accessible Family Planning Services

    WHEREAS, Earth Overshoot Day is the date each year when it is determined that we (all of humanity) have used more of the Earth’s natural resources than our planet can renew in that entire year; and

    WHEREAS, In 1970, Earth Overshoot Day was December 29; and

    WHEREAS, This year, Earth Overshoot Day is August 1, 2018; and

    WHEREAS, We now use the resources equivalent to that of 1.7 Earths; and

    WHEREAS, One way to live within the means of our planet is to ensure affordable and accessible family planning services, including birth control and women’s health services; and

    WHEREAS, Better family planning is a proven effective way to improve child welfare, reduce economic inequality, and protect and restore our environment; and

    WHEREAS, Smaller, child-centered families would result in 50% more biocapacity per person in 2100, and more biocapacity makes it easier to have thriving lives for all within the means of the planet; and

    WHEREAS, Investing in smaller, child-centered families through the empowerment of women is also consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG Number 5 General Equality calls for ending all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere, including giving women equal rights to economic resources and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels; and

    WHEREAS, Gender equality can also help ensure that we live within the means of our planet because when women are respected as equal partners in the household, at work, and in the community, better social outcomes for their families, including health and educational achievements invariably ensue; and

    WHEREAS, In 2011, nearly half (45% or 2.8 million) of the 6.1 million pregnancies in the United States each year were unintended; and[1]

    WHEREAS, Studies show that family planning programs and preventing teen pregnancy lead to more stable families and allow girls to stay in school longer; and

    WHEREAS, Studies also show that the more education young girls and women receive, the longer they wait to have children; and[2]

    WHEREAS, Some communities have instituted affordable and accessible family planning programs, which have resulted in an average 48% decrease in teen pregnancy; and

    WHEREAS, Family planning programs enable more women to use the birth control method of their choice and empower more individuals to plan if and when to become pregnant; and

    WHEREAS, The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released proposed changes to prohibit the use of federal Title X Family Planning Program funding for agencies that provide abortions or abortion-related services; and

    RESOLVED [ add your local government reference here] is committed to providing affordable and accessible family planning services, which is under attack by the Trump Administration, to protect our planet and its resources for future generations.

    [1] https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/unintended-pregnancy-united-states

    [2] https://www.wired.com/story/to-stop-climate-change-educate-girls-and-give-them-birth-control/

  • TAKE ACTION AGAINST TRUMP’S ATTACK ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN

    TAKE ACTION AGAINST TRUMP’S ATTACK ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN

    The Trump administration is trying to amend our family planning policies in ways that hurt women and children, including imposition of a domestic “gag rule.” They are proposing changes to Title X – the only federal program dedicated to increasing access to contraceptive care for low-income women. It would take away funding to providers who simply mention abortion as an option.

    The Title X changes are an obvious effort to defund Planned Parenthood, who is the only healthcare service for many. The proposed rules are intended to mislead women about their health care options and would encourage the use of ineffective birth control methods. Women deserve facts. The proposed Title X changes will affect people for their entire lives.

    TAKE ACTION – Comments are due 07/31/2018 at 11:59 PM EDT.

    Draft key points are below – feel free to copy, modify and/or otherwise use: 

    • This radical proposal has never been implemented in the United States and it would jeopardize the trusting relationship between women and their providers and put the health of the 4 million women nationwide who use Title X clinics at risk.
    • The proposed rule could increase the rate of unintended pregnancy by eliminating the requirement that Title X clinics provide access to the full range of FDA-approved contraceptive methods,
    • Methods encouraged in this rule such as “natural family planning” and “fertility awareness-based” methods are significantly less effective with typical use than long-acting methods, leading to a higher number of unintended pregnancies.
    • Reducing unintended pregnancy helps families get off to the best possible start. It empowers women to attain their education goals, helping create financially secure and strong families, lowers the abortion rate and reduces the number of people who need to use Medicaid and other public assistance programs.

     

     

     

  • World Population Day: Having Kids Calls for Day of Action at the United Nations

    World Population Day: Having Kids Calls for Day of Action at the United Nations

    Read the press release here. 

    Today, in anticipation of World Population Day on July 11th, the national child-protection organization Having Kids called upon the United Nations Secretary General to abandon the UN’s outdated family planning modeling in favor of a sustainable “smaller family” model. Having Kids will be peacefully leafleting in front of the UN headquarters tomorrow, urging Sec. Gen. António Guterres to issue a statement on family planning supporting the need for smaller families worldwide. The facts are crystal clear:

    Having Kids Executive Director Anne Green said this: “We offer the child-first Fair Start family planning model as a sustainable alternative to the UN’s current free-for-all and isolationist model. The Fair Start model is cooperative rather than isolationist, is based upon binding sources of international law, and provides a clear human rights-based solution to the problems discussed above and a path forward.”

    TAKE ACTION NOW

    Having Kids is a 501(c)3 nonprofit nonprofit organization dedicated to reforming family planning by replacing parent-centered family planning models with the human rights-based and child-first Fair Start model.

  • Urge the Guardian To Connect the Issues

    Urge the Guardian To Connect the Issues

    Last month we asked the Guardian to correct a confusing story that said changing one’s diet is the most effective way to reduce one’s impact on Earth, and mitigate climate change. As we explained, and the Guardian previously reported, that is not true. Ensuring smaller families is the most effective action – so much so, that in one recent report the impact of having one child less could not even be easily graphed against other actions. It’s not the first time the Guardian has elided family planning when discussing climate change.

    Most discussions of family planning and the environment – the Guardian included – involve narratives of the most compassionate and thoughtful people one can imagine forgoing having kids entirely. But is that what we really want? Would discussions of the need for better family planning policies, for all, make more sense?

    Ignoring a culture of family planning that treats each family as if it were an isolated unit condemns future generations to a luck-of-the-draw birth lottery that ensure poor kids stay poor, and rich kids stay rich. Journalists have a responsibility to put issues in context. In that sense, they should start at the source, and bring attention to idea of focusing our family planning on collectively ensuring a fair start in life for every child.

    It’s time for the Guardian to connect the dots, and see the linkages between the issues it reports on – from needy kids, to water shortages, to the cycle of child abuse and neglect, to maternal deaths worldwide – and the need for better family planning.

    We can all do better. Our future depends on it.

    Urge the Editor of the Guardian Katharine Viner to reconsider the paper’s approach to family planning by tweeting her @KathViner or by sending her a brief letter guardian.letters@theguardian.com.

  • Urge UN To Promote Better Family Planning After Trump’s Child Separation Scandal

    Urge UN To Promote Better Family Planning After Trump’s Child Separation Scandal

    Today Having Kids called on the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights to prioritize every child’s right to a fair start in life in response to President Trump’s child separation scandal. While decrying President Trump’s policy, the group called his disregard for children and their right to healthy development part of a much larger problem.

    Read the full letter here. 

    Trump’s policy is only one example of how we ignore the right of every child to a fair start in life. 

    • The letter pointed out that without the sensational border crisis the plight of these children, through poverty, trauma, and deprivation, would be ignored.
    • The letter linked the child abuse at the border, and the permanent harm it would cause the children, to the impacts of childhood poverty and trauma more generally, and noted immigration policies would not address these larger issues.
    • The group called on the Human Rights Council, from which the United States recently withdrew, to adopt a child-first Fair Start family planning model, rather than the current model of planning.

    Anne Green, Executive Director of Having Kids, said this: “Now is the time for the Human Rights Council to take a bold step towards creating a better world for future children.” “Now is the time to prioritize the needs of future children and promote the universal value of smaller, more sustainable, and truly equitable families.”

    Take action: Tweet UN HRC High Commissioner, at @UNHumanRights, and politely suggest he act on our request. 

     

  • Children First: Demand An End To Family Border Separations

    Children First: Demand An End To Family Border Separations

    A nationwide backlash to Trump’s policy of separating kids from their parents at the border, as a tactic to decrease illegal immigration is underway.

    It’s easy to get trapped in the specifics of the debate over immigration law and policy, but is there a larger issue at play – the well being of children and the consequences of child trauma. When we determine immigration policy, we must consider it from a broader, and longer-term, perspective. The Trump separation policy is more evidence of a dangerously shortsighted view of the world. Whether it’s

    the Trump administration shows a dangerous proclivity for short-term thinking. That’s evident in Trump’s child separation policy too, given the long term impacts on the children and the potential for trauma to be continued for generations.

    Humans have historically valued strongmen leaders because they could protect us from threats, like dangerous foreign powers. But we live in a different world today. What if these less-evolved strongmen, with their short-term thinking, have themselves become the threat?  What do we do then? We put children and future generations first in all of our policy positions and decisions.

    The choices we make now will affect children for a lifetime. We must stand up against the cruel human rights violation that is currently happening on our southern border. Every American has a duty to defend the values of our country and the welfare of the children on our soil and in our care. It’s time to put children first in all of our policy decisions.

    Take action: Call your representative today and demand Congress act to end to Trump’s child separation policy.