Fair Start Movement

Tag: News & Fair Start Headlines

  • 2020 Candidates: We Can’t Fight Inequality Without Family Planning Investments

    2020 Candidates: We Can’t Fight Inequality Without Family Planning Investments

    As 2020 contenders like Warren, Booker, Harris, Gillibrand, Schultz, and others make the media rounds, we’ve been hearing a common theme: creating a future where Americans have the opportunity to succeed. They talk about getting a fair shot and the struggle to get ahead.

    Elizabeth Warren frequently declares that it shouldn’t matter where you come from. She wants to fight for “…an America where every kid, no matter what that kid’s zip code is, has that same fighting chance.” It’s a trope used frequently by candidates.  

    But the reality is, it does matter what zip code a child is born into. If we want a country where the zip code in which you are born doesn’t matter, family planning HAS to be part of that picture. There’s no way around it.

    In “Giving Kids a Fair Chance,” Nobel Prize Economist James Heckman argues, “the accident of birth is the greatest source of inequality in America today. Children born into disadvantage are, by the time they start kindergarten, already at risk of dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, crime, and a lifetime of low-wage work.”

    Being born into poverty harms kids for life, and the longer it is experienced, the harder it is to overcome. Unequal opportunities translate into unequal lifelong outcomes by the time children reach the age of five. And right now a whopping 41% of American children live in or near poverty. Inequality in the U.S. is so pervasive that the UN has called us “the most unequal society in the developed world.”

    There’s no level playing field without a fair start in life.
    If we’re not talking about fairness from birth, we are not addressing the disparities in cognitive, emotional and health development that are inflicted. We’re not addressing the gap between young children who receive full attention from their parents and those who are missing critical early learning and social skills because their parents are working multiple jobs to get by.

    We squabble about how to improve school performance while ignoring the fact that 14.8 million kids in the U.S. don’t have enough to eat. It doesn’t take an expert to recognize that hungry kids cannot concentrate and do well in school. 

    As the Huffington Post explained:

    “The root of the problem of school performance is that we do not know how to effectively respond to the impact of poverty on a child’s readiness to learn or how to provide more effective instruction to accelerate progress for low-income students who find themselves behind their peers.

    Children born into poverty must overcome significant obstacles to their educational success before ever stepping a foot into a classroom or school. And once they do enter school, they encounter a system designed to provide instruction to groups of children that are expected to learn in the same environment and at the same pace. For children in poverty who began their formal schooling already behind other children, this uniform pace and structure assure that they will never catch up to their peers.”

    How Family Planning Reduces Inequality
    The decades of evidence is clear. Parents who plan, wait, and focus resources on smaller families are more financially secure and stable, parent better, and invest more in each child. The results pay off for kids in the form of greater academic achievement, emotional health, social mobility, health, community participation, gender equality, lifetime success, and more. Research indicates that better family planning is the most effective way to end the cycle of poverty.

    Fixing Our Broken System
    Some candidates are exploring the idea of a Green New Deal among other fixes. Yes, corporations and the 1% need to pay their fair share in taxes, adults need a living wage, and the cost of higher education needs to be addressed. But history shows that fairer taxes and better jobs are not enough. All of that must go hand-in-hand with investments in children and family planning to enable every child to succeed throughout their development and into adulthood.

    One solution? Guaranteed Minimum Income tied to family planning. Having Kids has proposed such a plan to reduce inequality in D.C. Another approach is having great success in Colorado through the LARC4CO program, a partner of Having Kids. They offer affordable long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) to reduce unintended pregnancy and empower families to achieve greater stability before having kids. Investments like these are powerful tools in reducing economic inequality. 

    Until we invest in better family planning to give all kids a fair start, zip codes will continue to matter in the fight for equality. We implore the candidates to start the conversation.

    TAKE ACTION: Tweet the candidates and tell them that we must invest in family planning to reduce inequality. Use the hashtag #fairstart.

  • Meghan and Harry: Consider Having a Small Family

    Meghan and Harry: Consider Having a Small Family

    Having Kids sent a letter today to Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, respectfully asking that she and her husband Prince Harry consider setting an urgently needed example for the world by making the thoughtful choice to have a small family.

    Read the letter here.

    Having Kids promotes the sustainable and human-rights based Fair Start family planning model to ensure a fair start in life for every child. Small, well-planned families are the most effective way to end poverty and to reduce our impact on the planet at the same time.

    We previously sent a letter to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge following news that the couple was considering having a third child. As we have said in the past, there are a number of reasons for writing to the Royals. With the simultaneous threats of accelerating climate change and rising inequality across the globe, there is a need for role models who have a global presence. The facts make it clear why:

    • 387 million children worldwide live in extreme poverty.
    • 4.5 million children in the UK live in poverty, and that number is expected to soar.
    • Children born into poverty are more likely to be poor as adults, passing it on to their kids.
    • As inequality increases, child welfare decreases.
    • Children of color are disproportionately affected.
    • Inequality manifests in a number of ways including child abuse, unsafe neighborhoods, poor health, and impeded cognitive development and ability to learn. In fact, 200 million young children do not develop at the same level as their non-poor peers.
    • Despite alarmist warnings about declining fertility rates, the population is growing.

    But when parents wait and have small families, they and their communities are able to invest more in every child to give them a fair start on a level playing field. Smaller families have also been shown to:

    • increase gender equality as women with small families tend to have greater decision making power and greater lifetime success
    • increase the standard of living of families
    • improve financial and familial stability
    • result in better parenting and increased levels of happiness

    The COP24 global summit this past fall showed that world leaders are failing in their duty to address the greatest threat to the stability and sustainability of our planet: large families. The world needs conscientious figures like Harry and Meghan to bring attention to the trend towards smaller families as a positive one, and to lead the discussion on the future that kids deserve.

  • Are COP24 World Leaders Ignoring the Greatest Factor in Climate Change?

    Are COP24 World Leaders Ignoring the Greatest Factor in Climate Change?

    Right now, world leaders are meeting in Katowice, Poland for the COP24 Conference to finalize the negotiations outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement. Unfortunately, the agenda indicates no discussion about the greatest factor in mitigating human impact on climate: sustainable family planning. Much of the agenda revolves around reigning in industrial emissions. Certainly, that’s important, but aren’t we missing the elephant in the room? Those emissions are driven by the demand that people create.

    We’re a already facing life with more deadly acts of nature, like the California wildfires that took 101 lives and the east coast hurricanes that took 87 lives this year. We’re also seeing less habitable land, water scarcity, and the extinction of wildlife at an alarming rate.

    Our kids are depending on us to save their future in the little time left before we reach a point of no return. Most of the world leaders in attendance at the COP24 conference are parents themselves. As illustrated by the list below, a large portion of them are doing their part to set an example by having a small family with no more than two kids.

    List of Speakers for Heads of State and Heads of Government High-Level Segment:

    Leaders with small families:
    His Excellency Mr. Baron Divavesi Waqa, President of Nauru – 1 kid (adopted)
    His Excellency Mr. Mokgweetsi Eric Masisi, President of Botswana – 1 kid
    His Excellency Mr. Raimonds Vējonis, President of Latvia – 2 kids
    His Excellency Mr. Rumen Georgiev Radev, President of Bulgaria – 2 kids
    His Excellency Mr. Borut Pahor, President of Slovenia – 1 kid
    His Excellency Mr. Milo Djukanovic, President of Montenegro – 1 kid
    His Excellency Mr. Alexander Van der Bellen, President of Austria – 2 kids
    Her Excellency Ms. Bidhya Devi Bhandari, President of Nepal – 2 kids
    His Excellency Mr. Pedro Sánchez Perez-Castejón, President of the Government of Spain – 2 kids
    His Excellency Mr. Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands – no kids
    Her Excellency Ms. Ana Brnabić, Prime Minister of Serbia – no kids
    His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See – celibate
    His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid of the Kingdom of Morocco – 1 kid
    His Excellency Mr. Gjorge Ivanov, President of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – 1 kid

    Leaders with large families
    His Excellency Mr. Alain Berset, President of Switzerland – 3 kids
    His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg – 5 kids
    His Excellency Mr. Sauli Väinämö Niinistö, President of Finland – 3 kids
    His Excellency Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria – 10 kids
    His Excellency Mr. Ilir Meta, President of Albania – 3 kids
    His Excellency Mr. Frank V. Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji – 5 kids
    His Excellency Mr. Jüri Ratas, Prime Minister of Estonia – 4 kids
    Mr. Maroš Šefčovič, Vice President of the European Commission – 3 kids

    Leaders with an unknown family size
    His Excellency Mr. Mirco Tomassoni (unknown)
    His Excellency Mr. Luca Santolini, Captains Regent of San Marino – (unknown)
    His Excellency Mr. Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, Prime Minister of Eswatini – (unknown)
    Her Excellency Ms. Saara Kuugongelwa Amadhila, Prime Minister of Namibia – (unknown)

    Leaders from wealthy countries that have grown rich through colonization have the greatest obligation to reduce their family size and lead by example because of the disparate impact wealthy countries/populations have on the environment, because of the history of exploitation of other countries, and because human rights-based family planning change must account for culture. We all must acknowledge that, and account for the difference. But some change by all is necessary. 

    These leaders have the power to bring a discussion to the forefront on the need for nations to promote smaller families and sustainable family planning. The Fair Start model offers a human rights-based solution that accounts for the needs of future children and the world in which they are born.

    We have asked the Secretary General of the U.N. to issue a new statement on family planning, urging the world to choose smaller families. We are also calling on world leaders to incorporate sustainable family planning into their nations’ respective climate action plans in order to achieve the targets set in the Paris Climate Accord.

    TAKE ACTION
    Tweet UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres with the hashtag #COP24 and ask when sustainable families will be part of #sustainabledevelopmentgoals. And add your name to our letter here.

  • Exxon Knew It Was Destroying Our Kids’ Future. Tell Them To Make It Right.

    Exxon Knew It Was Destroying Our Kids’ Future. Tell Them To Make It Right.

    ExxonMobil, and many companies like it, are largely responsible for the climate change that is already wreaking havoc across the globe. The evidence has been mounting for years. Recent reports make clear that climate change will cause death and suffering on an unprecedented scale, that the situation is quickly worsening, and that our governments and the United Nations are utterly failing to protect us. Even former Exxon execs are calling for accountability.

    According to The Guardian, “ExxonMobil actively misled the public about climate science and its implications”.

    “In 2015, Inside Climate News and The Los Angeles Times reported that Exxon was well aware of the risks of climate change and used that research in its long-term planning for activities like drilling in the Arctic, even as it funded groups from the 1990s to the mid-2000s that denied serious climate risks,” explains the New York Times. Many have said that #ExxonKnew and even looked forward to profiting from melting ice caps in order to access new oil reserves. “…They chose to accept those risks on our behalf, at our expense, and without our knowledge,” per The Guardian. Former CEO Lee R. Raymond was a large part of that process.

    No system of government, nor system of corporate property and assets, override your kids’ right to a safe, healthy, equitable and democratic future. That right is supreme and superior to anything that interferes with it. You are morally entitled to defend that right. Just like those that defended human rights in the founding of the United States, or against aggressors in World War II, you can act against those threatening our freedom.

    We can’t rely on government anymore. We have to defend our right, ourselves. Exxon has an overriding moral obligation to answer for the consequences of its activities. It’s pretty simple: Those most responsible for, and capable of solving our greatest problems, must support the most comprehensively effective, and just, solutions.

    Exxon has proposed funding to support things like a carbon tax. We have a better idea. Rather than relying on piecemeal settlements and downstream solutions through government like failing carbon taxes, we need something more fundamental, and capable of accounting for the complex interplay of values like nature, equality, and democracy. We need to employ the most just and effective solution to climate change and other violations of human rights: We need Fair Start family planning, and by companies like Exxon owe it to us to fund it.

    The best solution is to start the source of the problem and finally initiate a true system of human rights, through a substantial transfer of resources from those most at fault to incentivize parents to choose smaller families, to help them give their kids a fair start in life, and to build the resilience our kids will need to thrive in a world degraded by climate change. Our human rights require this transfer of resources, and parents should act on their best instincts and act to protect future generations by demanding what is theirs.

    Take action:

    Politely ask ExxonMobil’s Chief Executive and Board Chair Darren W. Woods, as well as former executive Lee R. Raymond, to propose a comprehensive Fair Start solution that includes significant funding and the resources future generations will need. Contact the company at (972) 940-6000, and Lee Raymond at leeraymond@hotmail.com, or Tweet @ExxonMobil to urge them to support this proposal.

  • Gabriel Fernandez Was Tortured. We Must Prevent Child Abuse Before it Happens.

    Gabriel Fernandez Was Tortured. We Must Prevent Child Abuse Before it Happens.

    From “Why Did No One Save Gabriel?” published in The Atlantic, October 2nd, 2018.

    “Is it normal for your mom to hit you with the part of the belt that has that metal thing on the end?”

    “You mean the buckle?” Garcia (his first-grade teacher) asked.

    “Yeah,” he said. “Is it normal for you to bleed?”

    ———————–

    “Near the end of January, Garcia was reading to a group of students when the door opened. It was Gabriel. This time, the students didn’t laugh. They didn’t understand what they saw. Gabriel’s eyes were swollen, and squinty like a cat’s. Little round bruises dotted his face. Garcia told him to sit down. When she was finally alone with him at recess, she asked what had happened.

    “I fell,” he said.

    “I don’t believe you, Gabriel,” she said, noting that this was the first time he’d lied to her. She saw the anger swell inside him.

    “It’s because my mom shot me in the face with a BB gun!”

    “Okay.” She paused, not knowing what to say. “Why did you lie and tell me you fell?”

    “When I tell you, and that lady comes, then I get hurt worse.”

     

    Gabriel Fernandez was tortured to death by his mother and her boyfriend.

    Nearly five children die every day due to abuse and neglect in the U.S. The system failed to protect a little boy, who despite the cruelty inflicted upon him, still loved his mother. Gabriel’s case is a heartbreaking reminder that downstream solutions are not enough to keep kids safe.

    prevent child abuse

    But we cannot let him become another statistic. We must prevent abuse before it happens. Having Kids is the only organization working to stop child abuse through Fair Start orders, which prevent child abusers from having additional children while they are on probation and undergoing rehabilitative programs.

    You can prevent this harm inflicted on so many kids with your gift on this Giving Tuesday.

     

  • Shocking Child Abuse in Florida – Having Kids Offers Solution

    Shocking Child Abuse in Florida – Having Kids Offers Solution

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    Today the national child-protection organization Having Kids called upon Florida Governor-elect Ron DeSantis to adopt a policy of preventing child abusers from having additional children. Together we can end child abuse.

    Read the full letter here.

    On August 19, 2018, the 4-year daughter of Jacqui Lyne Carter was brought into an emergency room in Jacksonville with severe head trauma. While the child’s mother Carter, told investigators that her daughter had simply hit her head from moving around excitedly in a bouncy chair, a medical examination showed a very different story. A CAT scan revealed multiple skull fractures as well as multiple brain bleeds. Medical reports from the hospital revealed that this young child had both “old and new skull fractures.” This type of skull fracture and brain damage was not from an accidental “bump,” but clearly “indicative of a blow to her head with force.” Even more horrifying, exams revealed not one, but two fractures, indicating at least two separate forceful blows to the girl’s head.

    In 2016 alone, Florida Department of Children and Families received more than 225,000 referrals for child abuse and neglect. Even more alarming, there were a staggering 126 fatalities from child abuse and neglect in Florida in 2017 – twice as high as the national average. Florida’s child maltreatment reporting rate has consistently exceeded the national average and Florida is in the top 10 states in the nation for reporting by calculating children investigated per 1,000 children in the general population. In fact, per a study by the SAS Institute that followed a 2005 birth cohort for 10 years, approximately one in every five children born in Florida in 2005 were reported at least once to the child welfare system within 60 months from birth. Florida’s child population has increased by 1.8% from 4,031,098 in 2007 to 4,105,129 in 2015 compared to a 0.5% decrease in the United States’ child population. Florida’s poverty rate for 2015 was 2% higher than the comparable national average.

    Having Kids is urging DeSantis to develop policies, and encourage legislation, that enables judges to issue Fair Start Orders. This would allow courts, at the judge’s discretion, to issue an order to prevent offenders in the most egregious child abuse and neglect cases from having children for a limited time period as a condition of his or her probation. Having Kids Executive Director Erika Mathews said this: “We offer child-first Fair Start family planning as a way to actually protect children, by preventing child abuse at the source – poor family planning.” “If we want a better world, we have to start thinking ahead.”

    Tweet him at @RonDeSantisFL and ask him to pursue Fair Start policies. 

     

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  • Animals Are Disappearing and Large Families Are to Blame

    Animals Are Disappearing and Large Families Are to Blame

    Animals are disappearing. A recent study has determined that just two generations of humans have killed off more than half the world’s wildlife populations. Populations of animals have declined by 60 percent since 1970, according to a report released Monday by the World Wildlife Fund. According to the Washington Post, “the animals that remain will fight against warming oceans choked with plastic, toppled rainforests may zero out fragile species, and refuges such as coral reefs may nearly die off.”

    The loss is directly attributable to the fundamental cause of all environmental crises: Large, poorly planned families and the unsustainable population growth they cause. 

    Many of the environmental crises today are caused by variables that we did not understand when setting environmental polices decades ago, variables like the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. But at that time we did know about one variable – population growth as an underlying multiplier of all anthropogenic impacts. Had we taken family planning more seriously then, we would not be where we are today.

    Poor family planning is enabled by an outdated social model that focuses on what parents want more than on what future children need. It was a system developed for survival in a different time, before we knew what we know today about human impact on the planet, early childhood development needs, and the lasting impact that crowding has on inequality. We are not living in that world anymore. Our cities and towns are becoming increasingly crowded and we’re demanding more than the natural world can comfortably provide. That type of isolated living of the past no longer serves us. It does not account for the nonhuman world. It does not leave room for animals.

    There is a better way. 

    Urge the WWF, at @PavanSukhdev, to publicly support our call on the United Nations Secretary-General to issue a statement on the need for a new and cooperative “smaller family” planning model designed to give every kid a fair start in life.

  • We Have a Right to Better Male Birth Control. Who’s Standing in Our Way?

    We Have a Right to Better Male Birth Control. Who’s Standing in Our Way?

    Women have shouldered the costs of birth control for too long. They live with the side effects, risks, and responsibilities of obtaining and using it, or they risk pregnancy. Men face no such consequence. Perhaps that is why surveys report that men have a lower tolerance for the associated side effects. Given that men cause 100% of unplanned pregnancies, isn’t it time for them to share some of the responsibility?

    The good news is that many millennial men indicate that they do want options and the ability to choose for themselves. Education can also help to dispel concerns that may have led to the unfavorable opinions in survey results.

    A birth control pill for men and other long-acting and reversible contraceptives would drastically cut unwanted pregnancies. These options could be game-changers when it comes to solving the world’s biggest problems. Family planning is the most effective way to address climate change, child welfare, and economic equality. There are several new methods, including a gel and a pill, that could be approved more quickly with better policies and more funding.

    What’s blocking these new technologies that could solve some of the world’s greatest problems? In one word: men.


    Resistance to Societal Changes

    The patriarchal systems that run our country and which have been in place for thousands of years rely on control of women’s bodies. By increasing reproductive freedom for all, women gain greater power in their household, the workplace, and in society. And that threatens the influence of cultural norms and institutions.  


    Economic Interests

    The men who shape our society and policies are subscribers to the “bigger is better” approach to the economy. This economic view relies on unrestrained population growth to create more consumers and taxpayers. Those like Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio push for more babies because they falsely claim that “it’s good for the economy”.

    These unsustainable “capitalism at all costs” policymakers are the ones making decisions on the progress of male contraceptive, from the prioritization of testing and approvals, the allocation of funding, the determination of acceptable levels of risk, and tolerable side effects.

    In creating these pro-natalist economic policies, they didn’t consider the impact that these pro-growth policies have on the environment, equality, or the needs for children. And we’re all paying the price.


    Greater Reproductive Freedom for Men

    The Parsemus Foundation shows there is a demand from men for greater reproductive freedom as shown by these quotes from their site:

    “I want control of my fertility that is safe, convenient to use and totally effective. That way I can be in control of my life rather than putting it in the hands of women and government agencies.” – S. Gee, South Korea

    “Having control over when I have children is the foremost thing in my life. I place great value on having freedom of choice and freedom from worry…” – Anonymous, South Africa


    Breaking Down Barriers

    Our culture is unquestionably imbalanced in terms of gender equity, which begs an important question. If there’s a product that makes life easier for men, will there be fewer hurdles in accessing it? Considering that the majority of decision-makers are men, it’s not a big leap to assume that would be true. In such a case, increased acceptance, affordability and access to male contraceptive would create pressure for easier availability to women, pulling the rug out from much the resistance to women’s reproductive rights.


    The Big Picture

    You and your kids have a right to a world that is not ravaged by climate change, and environmentally and socially destabilized through massive population growth. The male pill and other contraceptives could go far towards preventing that scenario.

    Our archaic “bigger is better” child tax credit system pays the wealthy (along with everyone else) to have children. Why not shift that funding toward the development and clinical trials of male contraceptives for a more economically and environmentally sustainable future? That’s one of the many questions Having Kids will be asking members of Congress in the months to come.

  • What’s Progressive About Unsustainable Family Planning?

    What’s Progressive About Unsustainable Family Planning?

    In a one-sided piece that really should have been treated as an editorial, The Washington Post (WP) spills much ink lamenting falling birthrates in the United States. The article seems like an opinion-piece prelude to policies like Italy’s recent scheme to bribe parents into having more kids by giving them land in exchange. The U.S. is actually not that far behind, following Trump’s recent cash-for-babies tax credit increase.

    Pushing for larger families, without accounting for every child’s right to a fair start in life and the impact of growth on our environment is irresponsible. Smaller families mean more time, love and energy for each child, a safer and more sustainable environment, and more connected communities where each person’s voice can matter. That strengthens democracy. Promoting higher birthrates to fuel cheap future labor, voracious consumers, and compliant taxpayers is economic nationalism, the end of which we hope is coming. Bigger is not better, and if the WP truly values democracy, it will be more careful when reporting on its fundament, the trends in family planning that literally determine who we are and will be as a people.

    Tweet Marty Baron, Executive Editor of the WP, at @PostBaron and politely suggest fuller reporting on this vital issue.