Tories slam population control

By Luke Coppen
THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY has promised to end the practice of forcing developing countries to accept birth control packages in return for aid, as part of its "common sense revolution".
In a speech at the Tory Party conference this week, shadow development secretary Gary Streeter pledged to sever the link between aid and population control, which was forged under the last Conservative government.
He criticised the Labour Government for continuing to channel taxpayers money to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. Last year it gave £13.12 million, a proportion of which was sent to China to support the Communist government's policy of forced abortion and sterilisation.
He said: "It is not for us to decide how many children a family in China should have. Why is the British taxpayer helping to fund a policy which makes China the only country in the world where it is illegal to have a brother or sister?
"This must end. We will not trample on the religious or cultural beliefs of the people we are trying to help." The new Tory development policy arises from a wide-ranging consultation with Britain's Christian communities — the results of which will be a key component in the Conservatives' re-election strategy.
The consultation on development, presented last week, found "a widespread rejection of coercion as an ingredient of population policy" among British Christians, as well as "the need for acknowledgement of serious excesses in the past".
It concluded that the coercive character of population policy should end and that "Britain and other western nations should not be exporting their own understanding of so-called reproductive rights into countries with religious or cultural objections."
This marks a sharp break with the thinking of the last Tory government, which explicitly linked foreign aid to the acceptance of population control programmes.
In July 1993, Baroness Chalker of Wallesey, then Overseas Development Minister, outraged Catholics by calling for a showdown with the Pope on the issue of birth control. Ian Linden, director of the Catholic Institute for International Relations, said that the new Tory policy announced this week was a "Y-turn".
"It's not quite a U-turn, but it's a very significant change of direction," he said. "There was concern over Lynda Chalker's emphasis on structural adjustment and population control, which seemed to be the wrong emphasis for development policy."
Julian Filochowski, director of Cafod, welcomed the new emphasis in Tory policy. "They seem to be absolutely clear that the promotion of abortion in any way is unacceptable. That is very welcome and a very great advance that will be welcomed not only by Catholics but by Muslims and many others as well.
"The Chinese policy on population is a scandal and it is a warning to all those who believe in holding out bribery or penalties. It is a slippery slope and the end result is China's one-child policy.
"If that policy is a scandal than neither the British Government nor the UNFPA should be funding it."
Editorial Comment — p7