The National Catholic Register recently published an editorial, “Separate the Wheat From the Chaff in US Foreign Aid,” attempting to balance support for President Donald Trump’s cuts to “rank ideological colonialism” while promoting USAID’s “humanitarian” work, particularly through Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
Unfortunately, the article overlooks USAID’s inherent ideological colonization.
Even more disqualifying is this: Since its inception, the aid provided by USAID has been tied to population control.
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which led to the creation of USAID and still governs its operations today, specifies “control of population growth” as one of the criteria used to determine whether a country is committed to “the most effective use of such assistance to help satisfy basic human needs of poor people.” [Sec. 102, (b)(4)]
In other words, no population control, no aid.
Section 104 of the Act, entitled “Population and Health,” makes this explicit. It attacks “large families” and states that “uncontrolled population growth can violate otherwise successful development efforts.” “Economic progress,” the act insists, requires “effective birth control” and “effective family planning”:
“While every country has the right to determine its own policies with respect to population growth, voluntary population planning programs can make a substantial contribution to economic development, higher living standards, and improved health and nutrition.”
Driving the point home, the act instructs the president:
“In order to increase the opportunities and motivation for family planning and to reduce the rate of population growth, the President is authorized to furnish assistance, on such terms and conditions as he may determine, for voluntary population planning. In addition to the provision of family planning information and services … population planning programs shall emphasize motivation for small families.”
The requirement to make population control an element of USAID’s operations is outlined in Section 194(d). The “Integration of Assistance Programs,” as the section is called, requires population-control measures to be included in every foreign development project. All assistance must focus on the interrelationship between “population growth” and “improvement in living standards.” All assistance programs must be reviewed for their impact on “population growth.” And, finally, “All appropriate activities proposed for financing under this chapter shall be designed to build motivation for smaller families.”
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 is still in force today. What this means is that, for the past six decades, population control has been one of the chief tools used by USAID in its development projects.
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