By Donald A. Collins | 1 July 2014

Church and State

Recently, a new book entitled “Facing the Population Challenge: Wisdom From the Elders” was mentioned on this site. It contains essays by people who have long histories of concern about the growth of human population. It was ably edited by Population Press’s Founder Marilyn Hempel and published by PP’s book division, Blue Planet United. While many pioneers far more worthy than this author, who was one of the contributors to this book were NOT included, those of us who were, including Professor D. Malcolm Potts and his wife, Dr Martha Campbell, were able to tell about the beginnings of our modern and often frustrated efforts to bring full reproductive choices to women worldwide.

This laudable publication sets forth the concerns of so many leaders such as Albert Bartlett, Lester Brown, and Paul Ehrlich about population, but regrettably almost entirely fails to target a primary cause of our failure to curb growth by providing all women the means to control their fertility.

Yes, the male dominated monotheistic sects of the world can and should be identified as the primary culprits in the population boom story.

Now, in a glaring example, on June 30, 2014, 5 old Catholic men, who happen to be Justices on the US Supreme Court, have just ruled that family owned companies can deny contraception coverage in their employee health care plans. From this, it is predicted by one of the 2 women Justices who joined male Justice Breyer in dissent, we shall see many more roadblocks put up by many firms for all kinds of reasons. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called this “a decision of startling breadth”.

In her 35 page dissent, Justice Ginsburg wrote and then read on July 1st to the audience at the Court: “Until this litigation, no decision of this Court recognized a for-profit corporation’s qualification for a religious exemption. . . . The exercise of religion is characteristic of natural persons, not artificial legal entities. As Chief Justice Marshall observed nearly two centuries ago, a corporation is ‘an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law.’ ”

Read Ginsburg’s dissent here.

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby

In Dana Milbank’s 7/1/14 Washington Post column, he quoted Ginsburg who said Alito’s ruling was an “expansive notion of corporate personhood.” She invoked the writing of former justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote that corporations “have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires.”

We soldier on, as we know the consequence of not reducing human numbers will be catastrophic and in the not too distant future. But until our main stream mass media has failed to show the consistent public courage to finger the culprits of this outrageous invasion of human privacy. Without their eye opening courage, this board invasion of personhood by ideologues of vicious intent, women will never reach the goal of universal choice. And as Dr. Campbell so eloquently points out in her Facing the Population Challenge article, there has been “A Strategy of Silence Around Population” which has pushed action off the urgent list. And not of course entirely emanating from religious sources.

However, the timid, the weak, the frightened, those who would be tactful and solicitous of others opinions have by their inactions put the world and the nation in a box.

Folks, Pandora’s box of evils is open. These five misguided males have completely lost their way in a manner obviously less invasive than the Moslem leaders who find many reasons to kill women for seeking the basic human rights to which we are all entitled. But their action on June 30th was clearly in that tradition of female repression.

Fortunately, there are many strong voices for choice such as Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the Center for Reproductive Rights to name only a few who come down hard on such judicial iniquities. However, these too could point the finger at these male dominators more strongly. After all a huge majority of Catholic women don’t follow Vatican strictures on contraception or abortion.

But the leaders can’t do what all us citizens who admire and value personal freedom and human rights can. Are there enough of us in the USA and elsewhere? We can only hope so. But we have to be willing first to understand and then to overcome that wall of silence that has protected such repressive powers for far too long. Remember this sect is the same one whose membership included many who were pedophiles.

A great place to start would be reading the findings on the pervasive influence on secular matters by the RCC written by Church and State’s Chair, Dr. Stephen D. Mumford, whose book on Catholic power is available on this site.

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC., has spent over 40 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013.

Professor Milton Siegel, who for 24 years was the Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization, speaks to Dr. Stephen Mumford in 1992 to reveal that although there was a consensus that overpopulation was a grave public health threat and would be a major cause of preventable death not too far in the future, the Vatican successfully fought off the incorporation of family planning and birth control into official WHO policy. This video is available for public viewing for the first time. Read the full transcript of the interview here.

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