Family Planning as One of The Solutions to Overpopulation

Population growth is not an issue that we can neglect; serious problems can arise like environmental damage and limited resources. Population growth can be defined as an increase or decrease in the population of living species. There are a couple of major impacts that the human population growth has on the earth. We consume many resources such as land, food, water, air, fossil fuels and we also produce lots of waste products. The increasing population size could change many things such as: rising food costs, energy prices and climate change. It is an issue that affects everyone because we are all responsible for working towards a future where we can have a good quality of life without destroying what we need to survive. There are many factors how each population uses resources and reproduce. Countries that developed have access to education and healthcare, while developing countries do not. Developing countries tend to have higher birth rates due to poverty and lower access to family planning and education, while developed countries have lower birth rates.

In other countries that are not fully developed children are used for labor and therefore some families tend to have more children, due to poverty and no access to family planning and education. China has a population planning system: One-child (1978-2014) having more than one child was discouraged and if you had more than one there were punishable fines or forced abortions. They believed it helped to prevent 400 million births. They mad a got rid of the first policy and made a second one Two-child which allows families to have a second child. The change was needed to allow better balance of male and female children, and to grow the young population to ease the problems of paying for the aging population. Iran encouraged many couples to produce as many children as possible to replace the population lost by the war. Russia offers financial incentives and subsidies to encourage women to have children.

I do feel that some of these are extreme measures for family planning. I believe that developing countries should be supported by their government and be provided with healthcare, educational or financial incentive. There are many strategies that could help to reduce or control the population. As costs for living increase, I believe the more developed countries are able to plan a family better with the education and healthcare. I have to say that it is an important issue for the future of the human race and earth. The more the population grows the more resources and wastes are produced. Having children is expensive. It might be possible to end and then reverse human population growth through a strategy aimed at elevating women's status and increasing access to contraceptive services, so that essentially all births result from intended pregnancies.

I do believe in the use of contraceptives to avoid an unplanned pregnancy. I understand some things are unforeseeable but I also feel if you are not able to financially take the responsibility of having children you should wait until you can better afford the situation. To be quite honest, I did not even take global population growth into consideration when thinking about planning a family. I understand it is an issue but I do not feel that this would affect my family planning. My grandfather grew up in a poor part of New Jersey with twelve brothers and sisters. My grandparents were poor and did not have high school education and could not get jobs that paid well. They could not afford a house or apartment, so my mother actually lived in homeless shelters or with her aunts until she was twelve.

So, the most important thing I take into consideration before I start my family is if I am financially stable to take care of another human being. Unfortunately, I cannot speak for other people around the world but I would hope that they would consider their stability financially and economically in the environment before they choose to bring a life into the world.