Halt the population boom

Halt the boom, the population boom that is.

Presently, Filipinos are prolifically giving birth to babies at a rate of 3.2 babies per minute. Given this number, the Philippines’ population is set to hit 106 million families by the end of 2017.

There is nothing wrong with babies. They are wonderful and they bring joy to the home. However, it is a different matter when these babies are unwanted, accidents as some would describe. And unfortunately, a number of babies born to mothers are unwanted. They are like cuddly balls of dilemmas wrapped in soft cotton rags.

The Philippines is overpopulated and an overpopulated country is the perfect hatchery for all kinds of social woes. The drug problem that President Rodrigo Duterte is adamantly fighting against is one of the progeny of overpopulation. The country’s burgeoning crime rate is also an outcome of overpopulation.

Aisha Tariq, a Pakistani journalist once wrote that “it has been observed that the countries which have balanced population, crime rate is very low in such regions. When people are not provided with the basic necessities, it elevates crime rate.”

We Filipinos value our democracy, but do you know that overpopulation threatens the freedom we have fought so hard to regain from the hands of a dictator? Aldous Huxley, a prominent philosopher of his time, once predicted that “democracy is threatened due to overpopulation and could give rise to totalitarian style governments.”

So, what are we to do? Simple. Let us work to help keep our country’s population in check. We have a law that was penned to do exactly just that — The Reproductive Health Law. However, the law’s full implementation is put to a halt because of the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court.

There are people who are misguided on the law’s true meaning and intent. They ignorantly believe that it promotes promiscuity and abortion, when in reality it promotes exactly the opposite of that.

The law promotes responsible parenthood and it gives women access to contraceptives that will give them more charge over their bodies. The law will help the country prevent population explosion.

Every Filipino needs to rally in helping keep the country’s population in check. Let us all halt the population boom.