Although the focus has to a greater extent, been on serving developing regions, the impact that a single child living in the global North compared to the impact of a child living in the global South is tremendous.

It is unsettling that despite significant technological progress, nearly half of all pregnancies today are unintended. This has translated to an unmet need for contraception, family planning, and education. Although the focus has to a greater extent, been on serving developing regions, the impact that a single child living in the global North compared to the impact of a child living in the global South is tremendous. It also goes without saying that there continues to be a need to expand reproductive healthcare access in the United States. Yet, even more troubling is the social denial of a women’s autonomous right to choose her own reproductive destiny. Abortion, a contentious issue that remains politicized and debated among often those who lack the physical and emotional capacity to fully understand what it is like to carry an unintended pregnancy to term, is an absolute disgrace. This is not only a threat to social rights, but a threat to the health of our planet. To answer whether abortion is a necessary topic within the population discussion, I believe it is one that cannot be overlooked any more than it already has. Promoting safe sex practices and contraception is important and the production of Footprint condoms to break the ice in conversations is of course a step in the right direction. However, I cannot help but wonder how many people choose to not use condoms or alternative contraception when the education and the family planning resources are made available? I can think of a number of possible reasons for why this may be, but in addition, I think about contraceptive efficacy that assumes perfect use at each sexual encounter. Errors in assumption may not account for a significant number of unintended pregnancies, but advocates for both women’s reproductive rights and environmental sustainability need to acknowledge that even with the best intentions to prevent pregnancy, contraception does not always work 100% of the time, and it is not used 100% of the time even when it is strongly encouraged. Being childfree myself, I firmly believe that every single woman on this planet has a right to decide IF she wants to have children, and this is as opposed to WHEN. Nevertheless, in the midst of our ecological calamity, our willingness to engage in the hard but honest discussions with one another is the only way forward. We are past the point in which education and family planning interventions are sufficient to address the embedded issue of population within the greater sustainability challenge. We find ourselves at a time in history where the diffusion of new ideas and cultural narratives surrounding sex, love, and family are crucial. Long held pronatalist messages that have saturated the global media across cultures over time have discouraged greater society from considering alternative lifestyle choices, including choosing smaller family sizes and opting out of parenthood altogether. It is imperative that we empower and educate all people regardless of sex/gender, race/ethnicity, and/or socioeconomic status about the global impact of their individual reproductive choices and families size decisions. Addressing population size is a complex undertaking, but the answer is far from ignoring it altogether. No matter what you dedicate your life to, it is the planet and its life-supporting systems that make everything we do possible. We owe it to our Earth to care for one another and to preserve the one and only home we have. Whether you have children or are childfree for life, the future of humanity demands that we use every single tool in our toolkit –that includes compassionately engaging with one another in conversations surrounding population, contraception, and abortion without fear.