Fair Start Movement

Category: Children’s Rights

  • 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.

  • Five Ways to Celebrate [Responsible] Father’s Day

    Five Ways to Celebrate [Responsible] Father’s Day

    Not all fathers should be celebrated on Father’s Day, from the many fathers that kill their own children, to “TV Personalities” like Josh Duggar who’s life and poor family planning is eerily reminiscent of characters from the movie Idiocracy.

    But there are ways to celebrate, and help make Father’s Day mean more than just another excuse to buy something. We can make it mean a better world, and not just more people.

    1) Make a donation in the name of male contraception. The Male Contraception Initiative is a non-profit that is pushing for the development of male contraception through education, advocacy and funding research. A modeling study indicated that even if only 10% of interested men took up a male contraceptive pill, there would be a 5% decrease in unintended pregnancies in the United States. Want better fathers? Encourage better family planning, and ask the environmental organizations you belong to to do the same.

    2) Know someone who has a boatload of kids, or wouldn’t be a good father? Start planning your very own “Vasectomy Party” and invite those special guests. Could Josh Duggar be on your list?

    3) Talk to your kids about the importance of family planning.  In 2011, 45% of all pregnancies – or 2.8 million pregnancies – in the United States were unplanned. Though this figure represents an all-time low in unplanned pregnancies, there is still a lot of work to be done. There are loads of resources available about how to have these conversations with kids of all ages.

    4) Ask for family planning help if you need it  Responsible parents make sure they care for their child’s physical, emotional and educational needs. They put the needs of their child before their own feelings of pride and shame and ask for help to ensure their child is cared for. There are resources in every state to help families with financial or logistical needs.

    5) Offer help if you can give it. The best parents are those that teach their own children compassion for others and that everyone deserves a fair start in life.  If you are fortunate enough to have the resources, give to one of the many organizations that support low-income families with basic needs, kids in foster care, and equal educational opportunities for all kids. Mentor kids in need. And encourage the United Nations to take family planning seriously, and change from its outdated parent-focused modeling to the forward-looking and child-first Fair Start model.

  • Family Planning Systems Designed to Protect Children

    Family Planning Systems Designed to Protect Children

    Under California Law Governor Jerry Brown has the ultimate responsibility to protect children from harm. It’s called the parens patriae doctrine. States cannot fulfill their responsibilities to children without improving family planning models, taking steps to screen for irresponsible parents, and to prevent child abuse rather than simply react to it. Having Kids was formed, in part, to show states how to do this. In January, on the heels of the gruesome Turpin case, we wrote to Brown. 

    Brown has yet to respond, and multiple children and infants have been abused and neglected. This will continue to happen.

    The recent case of Gabriel Fernandez, who was tortured and murdered with help of his mother, is a reminder that Brown should act.

    Governor Brown, please promote Fair Start order legislation now. You are politically positioned to take action as your term winds down, and to support a family planning system designed to protect children (and in so doing protect the environment and promote equity), rather than randomly encourage people to have children in order to create economic growth.

    It is your legal responsibility. Please take action now. 

    Take action: Call Jerry Brown at (916) 445-2841 and remind him that he is obligated to do everything possible, including promote Fair Start orders, to stop the abuse.

  • Having Kids Asks Guardian to Issue Correction on Climate Gaffe

    Having Kids Asks Guardian to Issue Correction on Climate Gaffe

    The Guardian recently ran a story claiming that eliminating meat and dairy is the single biggest way to reduce impact on the environment. While going vegan is crucial for our planet, the claim in the article is not quite accurate. Today Having Kids is calling for a correction.

    As the Guardian itself recently reported, multiple studies have shown that choosing smaller families easily has the most impact on environmental crises like climate change. Moreover, those studies did not assess vital and obvious knock-on benefits of smaller families, like better cognitive outcomes for children, opportunities for empathy-building through early childhood development, and increased social cooperation and compliance with environmental norms.

    Population Impact

    From Paul Hawken’s book Drawdown to previous studies on climate change population size has been shown to be the primary driver of climate disruption. That’s also the case for the downstream impacts of climate change like ocean acidification, and for other forms of ecocide, like the loss of biodiversity / mass extinction of other species. Thus, sustainable family planning is the most significant act that we can take to reduce our impact.

    Are Vegans Exempt?

    Dietary changes should not replace better family planning. It should be included as a necessary condition of sustainability. If you want to be a true vegan, change your diet and plan smaller families for the goal of reducing the number of animals used for food and restoration of the nonhuman world. We should do our best to live sustainably through our consumption choices as well as through our reproductive choices.

    Ending the Taboo

    Discussing family planning is difficult because we have a cognitive distortion called temporal myopia. The push for pro-natalism has been ingrained in us over generations since the beginning of time. But today the size of the families we plan will determine our survival on the planet. It’s time to look beyond our selves. We must confront our own self-centered wishes to put our children’s future first.

    Our climate change trajectory is largely the product of past failures to deal with known variables like population and family planning policy. We should not repeat those mistakes, and the media has a grave responsibility in this regard.

    Fertility Rate Vs. the Economy

    Leaders and economists constantly push policies that support having more children to create future consumers and endlessly growth the economy. We see ourselves as consumers, rather than as citizens, which explains why dietary change is the common approach for people who care about animals. But why are we seeking infinite growth? What about a more stable, sustainable economy with a smaller gap between rich and poor and better opportunities for everyone?

    The Trend Toward Smaller Families

    Today there is also a marked trend towards smaller families, driven by several factors that range from cultural to financial. When thinking of policy changes, why not capitalize on, rather than ignore, this existing trend? From fully-funded LARC programming, to reforming child protection systems, to equity-based family tax systems, there are existing and effective vectors for real population policy change that can capitalize on the trend towards sustainable families.

    Family Planning for a Better Future

    Family planning is the unifying and primary driver behind all anthropogenic impacts. To fix our relationship with the nonhuman world, we will have to start at the source. Family planning is also our chance to create more equitable as well as sustainable societies. We can replace increasingly crowded, consumption-oriented economies with more connected communities that live in balance with nature. Family planning must be where we start in any discussion on how to reduce impact – at the source of who we are, and will become.

    The Guardian should issue a correction today. Ask the Guardian to do so at guardian.readers@theguardian.com, and to run a sufficient article explaining the correction highlighting the importance of better family planning.

    Ashley Berke, Spokesperson for Having Kids

     

     

  • Having Kids Calls on Elon Musk to Clarify Position on Family Planning and Population Growth

    Having Kids Calls on Elon Musk to Clarify Position on Family Planning and Population Growth

    Elon Musk, the outspoken billionaire who’s been attacking journalists lately, has also been sending conflicting messages about population growth. He’s incorrectly said that “world population is accelerating towards collapse,” but also decried the “soul destroying traffic” of urban centers like Los Angeles and proposed controversial tunneling by his companies as a solution.  It sounds as if Musk wants to increase population pressures and intensify climate change in order to profit from trying to solve them, and exacerbate the massive gap between poor people and billionaires like Musk in the process.

    Today Having Kids called on Musk to clarify his position on family planning and population growth by endorsing a human-rights based family planning model based on the principle that every child deserves a fair start in life. Musk was born into a privileged upbringing, having attended boarding school in South Africa during its Apartheid era, before leaving the country to avoid military service.

    Having Kids is asking Musk this question: Does he believe that every child deserves a fair start in life, with equal opportunities relative to children like his own? Anne Green, Executive Director of Having Kids, had this to say: “Elon should promote better family planning and true social and economic balance and sustainability, not the creation of more consumers and workers to further his economic empire.” “Many of the world’s richest people are calling for systemic change to avoid class warfare – this is Elon’s chance to do the same, and promote environmental protection at the same time.”

    Take action and tweet @elonmusk to politely ask for him to take a stand. 

    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.

  • Confronting Father Rennier, Poor Family Planning Advocate

    Confronting Father Rennier, Poor Family Planning Advocate

    “Why I Ended Up With Too Many Children” is an opinion piece by Father Rennier, a Catholic priest from St. Louis. He urges having as many kids as God is willing to allow. Having Kids is calling him out, and calling on Pope Francis to correct Father Rennier. Read our letter here.

    Father Rennier states, “No matter how many children you have, the number is always just right.” This perspective is surprisingly disconnected from the harsh realities we witness every day. Even Pope Francis has said that parents should not have more than they can properly bring up. Nearly 40% of American kids spend at least 1 year in poverty before they turn 18, and one in four U.S. children depend on SNAP benefits in a typical month. Rather than push mothers to have kids, Father Rennier should be asking how privileged people, like himself, can improve the conditions in which all children are born, though cooperative family planning models like Fair Start.  

    Father Rennier promotes a lack of responsible family planning by parents and communities. Here’s a fact: Nadya Sulemon (the “Octomom”), who struggles to feed, house, care and give attention to her kids, now says having 14 children was ‘very foolish, immature and selfish’. But according to Father Rennier’s view, her decisions were “just right”, despite the impact that large families have on our social safety nets as well as God’s beloved creation. How does that make any sense? 

    Despite what Rennier suggests, pregnancy isn’t a miracle. Today, for most women in the developed world, children can be a choice. The VAST majority of the practitioners of religions opposed to artificial birth control, including Catholics, obviously use some form of birth control or family planning method. These parents (as well as Pope Francis) understand that they cannot create good lives for their children if they have more than their resources (time & money) can bear.  

    For those like Fr. Rennier with the will and means, why not consider providing for a child in need? He missed a great opportunity to encourage his flock and readers to change their thinking beyond themselves, as well as to set an example. 

    Rennier also referred to the Amercan decline in fertility. Contrary to economists’ fears about our current reduced fertility cycle, the U.S. still holds one of the highest fertility rates in the developed world. Moreover, global trends project world population to exceed 10 billion by 2100. These facts, and the impact on our climate and future environmental security, cannot be ignored. Should we disregard the Vatican’s position on sustainable development and the moral obligation to protect our planet from further species extinction and famine?

    More crowded societies also mean greater social instability and less of a voice for each of us in our bloated and dysfunctional democracies, the sort that produce leaders like Donald Trump. Father Rennier’s example and advice are of legitimate concern for the world at large. A man of God who contemplates spiritual questions daily, he should look beyond himself.

    It is important that all of us cast our gaze not only lovingly on the children we have, but also more broadly to those around us and further forward to future generations.

    TAKE ACTION: Email Michaelrennier@gmail.com, and urge him to encourage thoughtful family planning decisions, ones that consider the needs of all of God’s children, not just our own, and ask Pope Francis (@pontifex) to denounce his advice.

     

     

  • CONCERNED MOTHER URGES IVANKA TRUMP TO CHANGE COURSE ON CHILD CARE POLICY

    CONCERNED MOTHER URGES IVANKA TRUMP TO CHANGE COURSE ON CHILD CARE POLICY

    Erika Mathews, a mother concerned for the welfare of her child, wrote to Ivanka Trump today to urge her to champion a major federal policy shift that would protect all children.

    Read Erika’s plea to Ivanka here.

    • A recent study from Stanford University has found that efforts to mitigate climate change could yield trillions in economic benefits.
    • The best way to mitigate climate change is by choosing smaller families,
    • Given the study, Erika asked Ivanka to change course from her current preferred child care policy, to instead champion a new federal policy fully funding “529” educational savings accounts through a cooperative family planning system.
    • That would align with the trend toward smaller in the United States, but also augment it by including incentives that would shift the family planning from a focus on parents, to a focus on future children and their right to a fair start in life.
    • A recent wave of news stories have reflected on the clear trend in the United States towards parents choosing smaller families. While many of the articles suggested this trend might harm the economy, there are no studies showing the per capita cost to Americans of reduced fertility.

    Erika had this to say: “Environmental degradation and social inequity are the greatest threats to our children.” “Ivanka should consider championing a new policy. Parents have the right to protect their children’s future and our government should help them do that.”

    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.

  • Family Planning: Our Choice Is Clear

    Family Planning: Our Choice Is Clear

    Child-first, Fair Start family planning puts the interests of children before parents. As parents, don’t we want what is best for our children? That’s why we need to wait, plan, get help, and be ready before having kids. When kids are born with a fair start, not only do they have a better shot at succeeding, our communities as a whole benefit as well.

    Infographic titled The Benefits of Smaller Families with icons and illustrations showing benefits like achievement, environment, democracy, community, well-being, and gender equality for families with fewer children.
    What does this mean in simple terms? It means planning smaller families, which are more sustainable for the planet and society, with families in need getting the resources they deserve to give their kids a fair start in life.  

    But aren’t fertility rates dropping? Why do we need to change our family planning model and related policies?

    Yes, U.S. fertility rates are down slightly. But our population is actually exploding, and economists’ alarmist warnings are centered on the position that we should have more kids to create more taxpayers, workers and consumers. They are urging us to hurt kids, in the log run, in order to create wealth for elites. That approach treats children as objects, and drives economic inequality.

    Infographic titled The Consequences of Poor Family Planning, listing negative impacts such as crime, less democracy, climate impact, unmet basic needs, biocapacity issues, poverty, underachievement, and inequality.

    Our family planning choices affect everyone. We can make our world better for all kids by choosing to have smaller families and demanding the resources, that as parents, we all need.

    There is no doubt that if the average parent plans smaller families, where we work together to ensure every child gets a fair start in life, you and your kids’ future will be less crowded, cleaner, and safer. If we continue on our current path, we get the opposite.

    Read stories from families who have decided to help us down the right path: https://fairstartmovement.org/sustainablefamilies/

     

  • HAVING KIDS ASKS PRO-CHOICE MOVEMENT TO ADOPT FAIR START MODEL

    HAVING KIDS ASKS PRO-CHOICE MOVEMENT TO ADOPT FAIR START MODEL

    In an open letter sent today, Having Kids is urging NARAL Pro Choice America to break a universal taboo and adopt the Fair Start model as its family planning model. Having Kids is urging the change in policy and messaging, especially in the fight against Trump’s new “domestic gag rule,” because it will base the demand for the freedom and resources not to have children on a broader base of objective interests, and make that demand more compelling, if not irrefutable.

    Read the full letter here.

    Having Kids is urging NARAL to challenge Trump because his family planning policies threaten national security, and as such bring into question the legitimacy of his government, and the obligation of the people to rise up. Having Kids is urging NARAL to challenge Trump because families in need have a moral claim to a portion of his and his ilk’s wealth, in order to assure their children starts in life equitable to the starts in life wealthy kids are given.

    Anne Green, Executive Director of Having Kids, said this: “Reproductive freedom should account for the needs of future children, the community, and the environment. Recognizing that intensifies the demand for resources, to a level it deserves.”