Fair Start Movement

Category: Family Planning & Child Rights

  • Ecological Destruction Starts With Poor Family Planning. Take Action.

    Ecological Destruction Starts With Poor Family Planning. Take Action.

    This video was recently shared by a supporter:

    THE FACTS ARE CLEAR:

    • The most effective way to address many of the impacts on our environment and other species, such as climate change, is to choose smaller families. In fact, it’s 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.
    • Child-first family planning provides a clear human rights-based solution and path forward. It’s sustainable and equitable, and it’s reflected in the worldwide trend toward smaller families that can invest more in each child and ensure a safer future.

    TAKE ACTION:

    Urge the United Nations to do what it was created to do: protect all of our futures by adopting Fair Start family planning policies: https://secure.everyaction.com/gZiWOydZ_0m7kxrlfD5OjQ2

    Urge any charities you support to commit to better family planning policies. which are the most effective way to protect kids, animals, the environment, and democracy: https://fairstartmovement.org/organizations-joining-for-world-population-day-at-the-u-n/

  • Pandemic Parenting: How Did We Get Here?

    Pandemic Parenting: How Did We Get Here?

    Parents and their kids are suffering under the weight of the Covid-19 pandemic. A recent study shows significant declines in mental well-being for families with children as the quarantines drag on and other crises loom.

    What went wrong?

    Our family planning policies, cultural attitudes, corporate advertising, and other factors have historically pushed women to have kids, often before they’re ready, in order grow the economy. These forces not only created overcrowded and unhealthy conditions that helped the pandemic spread and created ecological impacts such as the climate crisis that are setting the stage for the next pandemic.

    Who created such policies? Elites at the top of the economic pyramid made these policies to ensure big business a constant stream of cheap labor and hungry consumers. Politicians went along because more taxpayers meant bigger government. The people who pushed population growth, instead of human rights-based policies, are responsible for much the suffering we are experiencing today.

    It’s time to turn the tables.

    We have a right to the wealth and resources being hoarded by companies, rich families, and bloated governments — those with disproportionate power who are blocking real democracy. That money belongs to us. The best way to use this wealth would be to reverse the unsustainable growth paradigm and replace it with policies that move us toward 1) parental readiness, 2) ensuring every child a fair start in life, and 3) smaller and more sustainable families.

    Take action: Urge Congress to reverse the exploitation of families and to instead embrace Fair Start family planning.

  • New Survey: Education on Family Size and Population Growth

    New Survey: Education on Family Size and Population Growth

    Having Kids recently surveyed 376 people regarding their understanding of family size and population growth.

    • A significant number of people correctly see a relationship between family size and human population. About 86% of respondents answered affirmatively when asked whether there is a relationship between the number of children a couple decides to have and human population.
    • Though a majority of respondents have an accurate picture of current population numbers and those 50 years ago, a notable minority do not. Forty-one percent of respondents think the current number of people on the planet is either 3.5 billion (15.25%) or 5.5 billion (25.8%) instead of the correct answer of 7.5 billion and that the population in 1970 was either 7 billion (4.3%) or 5.5 billion (32.6%) instead of the correct answer of 3.5 billion.
    • Support for Having Kids’ mission remains high. Seventy-two percent of respondents indicated they would be supportive (36.3%) or very supportive (35.4%) of an organization pursuing Having Kids’ mission.
    • More education is needed regarding both the current population numbers and the expected growth of these numbers.
    A survey chart shows U.S. opinions on fertility rates: 45.94% think rates are declining, 35.99% say staying the same, and 18.08% say increasing. Bar graph and response table are displayed.
    A survey question asks if declining fertility rates will cause a worldwide population decline within respondents lifetimes. Bar chart: Yes (166), No (53), Unsure (77). Table repeats responses. Total: 296 answered, 0 skipped.
    A survey result screen shows a bar graph and table. The question asks about a relationship between family size and human population. 323 answered Yes, 25 No, and 28 Unsure, out of 376 total responses.
    A survey graph showing responses to Which number best reflects the human population at this time? Most respondents chose 7.5 billion, followed by 6.5 billion and 3.5 billion; results are also shown in a table below the chart.
    A survey question asks about the human population in 1970. A bar graph shows most respondents (62.63%) chose 3.5 billion, 28.29% chose 5.5 billion, and 9.08% chose 7 billion. Total responses: 381.
    A survey results chart shows support levels for an organization promoting cooperation between prospective parents. Most respondents are very supportive or supportive, with fewer neutral or unsupportive responses.
  • Should Parents Be Licensed Before Having Kids? Share Your Thoughts

    Should Parents Be Licensed Before Having Kids? Share Your Thoughts

    In a now-classic essay, one of the world’s preeminent thinkers, the ethicist Hugh LaFollette, argued that parents should be licensed before having kids.

    In short, the government issues licenses for activities that pose significant risk or impact to society, such as driving a car or owning a gun, but not to birth children? Does that make sense?

    Read LaFollette’s classic work here. Then tell us what you think:

    Share your thoughts on the idea of licensing parents at info@fairstartmovement.org.

  • An Open Letter to Ellie Goulding

    An Open Letter to Ellie Goulding

    Dear Ms. Goulding — 

    We at Having Kids Inc. strongly support your decision to delay having kids and your new podcast about your decision not to rush into having children. The many career women of the world have evidenced that having children isn’t the “end all, be alll” in life. We encourage you to follow through on your inspiration to take on a new platform to share your story. Your decision to delay starting a family is very much in alignment with the Having Kids Fair Start model detailed below.

    The Fair Start model is simple:
    1.) Communities help parents to plan their families and wait for readiness before having kids.
    2.) We all ensure prioritized resource distribution to give all kids a fair start in life.
    3.) We all promote smaller and more regenerative families that make all of this possible.

    We believe it is the best interpretation of the fundamental right to have children. The Fair Start Model is 10 to 20 times more effective at protecting children and our environment, and at building human rights and democracy, than other policies that address these issues. For many reasons, it is an overriding human right that can be furthered by all means effective. We would appreciate greatly your helping us promote
    the Fair Start model.

    — Erika Mathews, Executive Director, and Betty Martin-Finneran, Ph.D., MS, Research Associate

  • Our Environmental Impact Starts with Having Kids. Take Action.

    Our Environmental Impact Starts with Having Kids. Take Action.

    In a recent piece, The Guardian and George Monbiot do right by at least discussing family planning, the fundamental driver of our ecological and social crises. But they miss the mark by using their pulpit to demonize and exclude those focused on family planning reform, as opposed to unifying environmentalists, and offering ways for anyone who cares about our future to work together on the most effective changes.

    This is not in dispute: People cause anthropogenic impacts, and people don’t fall from the sky. In the case of the climate crisis, choosing one child fewer has 20 times the impact of altering one’s diet. In the mid- to late 20th century, world leaders and environmentalists made a gamble that family size would fall quickly enough to evade catastrophe. All of us, including George, were wrong. Our children will suffer for that mistake.

    What’s the solution now? The right to have children is universal, but properly interpreted, it has to orient from what future children need more than what intending parents want because future children have the most at stake. In other words, social justice and the constituting of just societies has to start at the beginning by prioritizing a resource distribution that incentivizes smaller and more equitable families. We can start by targeting the industries most responsible for the crises to pay what they owe. Making that one change in our family planning systems, and quickly employing policies that give all kids a fair start in life, is the way to be most effective and to unify family planning and equity. And we can do that by starting at home, as Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have done by choosing a smaller family and speaking out.

    TAKE ACTION: Urge the key U.N. agencies to ditch their isolationist family planning models and adopt the human rights-based Fair Start model instead. And urge the Guardian’s head offices to discuss the real solutions — like better family planning policies — to our biggest problems.

  • Survey Shows Broad Support for Male Pill and Policies to Encourage Its Use

    Survey Shows Broad Support for Male Pill and Policies to Encourage Its Use

    In 2019, Having Kids launched a campaign for policies that would encourage funding for the approval, marketing, and subsidization of the male birth control pill. From a powerful way to deal with Covid-19 and future pandemics to a means of addressing fundamental gender inequity, the male pill could be the magic pill for many of the crises we face today.

    Now, Having Kids is releasing a survey showing just how much people want the male pill and policies that would promote its use.

    The results are below.

    Bar chart showing responses to How supportive are you of a birth control pill for men? Most answered Very supportive (54.99%), followed by Supportive (29.20%), with fewer selecting Neutral, Unsupportive, or Very unsupportive.
    A bar chart shows survey responses about support for the CDC promoting a male birth control pill to male teenagers. Most chose Very Supportive (180), followed by Supportive (140) and fewer chose Unsupportive or Very Unsupportive.
    A bar chart shows survey responses on support for CDC promoting a male birth control pill to combat climate change. Most chose Very supportive, followed by Supportive, Neutral, Unsupportive, and Very unsupportive.
    A word cloud displaying responses to What benefits do you associate with a birth control pill for men? Prominent words include: women, unwanted pregnancies, population, responsibility, control, less, health, benefits, and sperm.
    A word cloud showing responses to concerns about a birth control pill for men. Prominent words include side effects, concerned, none, birth control pill, men, effect, and weight gain.
    Bar chart showing survey responses to organizational support for encouraging cooperation between prospective parents and equitable families. Most respondents are Supportive (166) or Very supportive (140) out of 411 total responses.

    TAKE ACTION: Urge the federal government to prioritize funding for the approval, marketing, and subsidization of the male pill.

  • Fair Start Family Planning: The Frontier of Social Justice?

    Fair Start Family Planning: The Frontier of Social Justice?

    The idea that every kid deserves a fair start in life — and that ensuring this fair start is the most effective way to protect our environment, animals, and democracy — is gaining traction. From Salon to Newsweek, media are starting to realize how treating family planning as a private matter has created the social and ecological crises that threaten our future. That realization is supported by a raft of peer-reviewed publications, which also light a pathway for policies that can get us and our kids out of the nightmare we are creating for them:

    ·         We know kids all need a fair start in life to succeed, and Fair Start judicial orders are a simple way to legislate and constitutionalize family planning reform.

    ·         Those orders can be part of comprehensive state and federal legislation recognizing the incomparable impact of better family planning. It’s the most effective way to help kids, animals, and the environment — in many cases, 10 to 20 times more effectively than downstream approaches.

    ·         What’s a practical way to ensure fair starts? Recent studies suggest that redistributing resources from the wealthy to incentivize parents to work together to level the playing field at birth, and to improve initial conditions for all kids, will work.

    ·         Reforming our policies to give every kid a fair start in life is the only way to build democracy from the ground up and comprise the future of people truly capable of self-rule.

    Learn more about the only truly fundamental social justice reform at HavingKids.org.

  • Why Conservatives Should Support Family Planning Reform

    Why Conservatives Should Support Family Planning Reform

    David Brooks recently made an argument in The New York Times that should resonate with conservatives: Inequity, and many other related crises, stem from the family and the way we raise our kids. His argument speaks to the sense among most conservatives that deep changes in our culture, and the decline of the family as a preparative institution, is the root of many evils from debilitating loneliness to widespread drug addiction.

    But Brooks stopped short of offering a truly effective solution to the problem. Why? Any solution would have to start with an obvious but controversial truism: If we want to ensure families prepare children to succeed, we need to start before those children are born and actually ensure that parents are ready to raise and develop children responsibly. That process does not happen magically.

    How Family Planning Should Be Reformed

    It requires reforming the way we plan families. How, exactly? As a recent Having Kids research paper published in the Loyola Chicago Law Review pointed out, one step forward would be to successfully incentivize prospective parents to wait to have kids until those would-be parents have met certain milestones. The cost savings of taking these steps to ensure responsible parenting are unparalleled, especially when we factor in the huge impact on pressing crises like climate change and extreme child poverty.

    In other words, it’s good to make sure the state will not have to pay the costs of parents failing to actually raise the kids they have, rather than our paying taxes to make sure the state continues to do a horrible job of post-hoc parenting. Moreover, this process can reduce population growth and the big government, centralization of power, and mind-numbing bureaucracy that comes with it. All this moves us toward governance that’s actually representative of the people themselves. That vision of freedom is the opposite of Mao’s policy of pushing women to have more kids, which made China, now with well over 1 billion people, the greatest threat to freedom in the world today.

    In short, ensuring every kid a fair start in life, in part by paying would-be parents to prepare, is a policy that works. Conservatives should support family planning reform because it embodies these fundamental conservative values:
    • Promoting responsible parenting and families
    • Ensuring our promotion of responsible parenting is efficient by acting before problems arise, and
    • Guaranteeing the American idea of freedom, or personal autonomy, that is possible only in a democracy of well-prepared citizens capable of self-rule and with true access to equal opportunities in life.

    Where Personal Freedom Really Begins

    There is, of course, a push among conservatives to ignore values like responsible parenting, fair starts in life, and participatory democracy in favor of policies that create kids as consumers, future workers, and compliant taxpayers because promoting a high birth rate will inflate the economy. That is simply selling out our values and foisting on our kids the costs of bad parenting in what Nobel Laureate Steven Chu called a pyramid Ponzi scheme. We are a democracy before we are an economy, and there is no reasonable conception of personal freedom that does not start with accounting for and developing the people who actually constitute our political systems and, as such, have power over us. And accounting for future citizens of our democracy means ensuring responsible parenting.

    The many who gave their lives to protect what they perceived to be a unique form of freedom did not die so that the United States could become a threat to itself, ecologically through the climate and other environmental crises, and socially through the decline of the family as an institution that prepares kids for functional society. Better family planning is our best solution to both the environmental and social problems we face.

    Learn more here.