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Show right to be here as we do and we are in no way superior to them and in fact we're probably inferior to them. We're demonstrating that right now, by squandering our intelligence and failing to use it to control our own population.” Bringing the numbers home: Within the US, Utah is the fourth fastest growing state in the nation; some of our counties, Utah County to name one, actually rival developing nations in fertility rates. The fertility rate measures the number of live births per 1,000 women in their childbearing years, ages 15-44. The fertility rate for the U.S. is 2 children per family; Utah’s average is 2.6 children per family. Utah county's fertility rate is higher than Indonesia, Brazil and Bangladesh. We have the youngest population in the country, a third of all Utahns are under the age of 18, which means a large portion of Utahns are not even into their childbearing years. If they continue in our breeding tradition, we could be in real trouble. Our state grows by approximately 43,000 people each year, which means a city the size of Bountiful is planted in this state every year. Here is another sign of Utah's fruitful reproduction: this century the world population growth 250 percent, in Utah that rate was more than tripled with our growth increasing 809 percent in the last 100 years. The population is expected to increase 194 percent by the year 2050, from 1.7 million to 5 million. Now, the national growth rate is a little less than one percent, compare this to Utah's growth rate of 2.12 percent. A one percent growth rate means the current population will double every 70 years, while a 2 percent growth rate means it will double in only half that time. You do the math. Home Grown Visionaries A non-profit organization, Envision Utah, has sprung up in Utah that has started to address how we grow. The organization is backed by many high-profile individuals with John Huntsman Jr. as chair (He replaced Robert Grow, appropriate name, eh?) and with Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, as unofficial media cheerleader. With this high name recognition, Envision Utah is by far the most visible group dealing with growth issues. They project how developing areas should zone their communities and create research tools for growth., but they refuse to plan for limiting our growth. Why are they leaving this component out of the equation? : “We have defined our focus to look at the impacts of growth that we are expecting, not to alter the growth rate, so it's just not part of our agenda. We've never felt like we would be able to achieve any kind of consensus on how to address the fertility rate issue and furthermore, it wouldn't make much of a difference,” said DJ Baxter, of Envision Utah. One pro-growth argument says that our population increase is just a sign of a robust economy and if we didn't grow internally, outsiders would come in and take all the jobs. Yet, our economy is only one component of the puzzle. We also have to contend with limited resources like water, food and air, and like our economy they may not always be around. Unfortunately, this defeatist attitude towards population growth is what will take us into the new millennium, especially when Utah's own governor refuses to address population growth. The official statement from Mike Leavitt's office reads, “It is not the role of government to tell people how to plan their families. Those are personal choices each family should Utah says large families are the single most important factor impacting Utah's population growth. Since its inception the LDS church has encouraged women to have as many children as possible: intercourse was synonymous with conception. But this year’s church handbook quietly enacted a new church policy on birth control. “It is the privilege of married couples who are able to bear children to provide mortal bodies for the spirit children of God, whom are then responsible to nurture and rear. The decision as to how many children to have and when to have them is extremely intimate and private and should be left between the couple and the Lord. Church members should not judge one another in this matter. Married couples should also understand that sexual relations within marriage are divinely approved not only for this purpose of procreating, but also as a means of expressing love and strengthening emotional and spiritual bonds between husband and wife.” Now, women have a choice to decide how many children they want. The policy gives credence to both family planning and birth control measures. It also gives LDS women a tool to help limit population in both their family and community, if members so choose. Yet the church has done a very poor job broadcasting this message to its members “Women need to know about the new LDS birth control policy. They need to know that the church has finally admitted that parent hood is a personal decision, period,” said author and historian Maxine Hanks, “Most of all, women need to know that they have options and know what those options are. The number of children a woman should have is a private, spiritual matter between her and god, This is why the new birth control policy is fair and humane, because it advocates personal decision making.” Spread the word and maybe a few condoms Education and family planning are the only way to come to terms with our great birth numbers, but they need better mediums for dissemination. The LDS church should be one, the other should be public schools. For years, legislation to implement sex education in Utah schools has been killed. Abstinence is the only form of birth control taught in schools and having sex outside of marriage can't be discussed. Sex education is not a class that teaches teenagers how to get pregnant on a Friday night, it is a class that admits that high school students are going to experiment with sex and teaches them how to responsibly deal with that decision. Even making condoms available in high schools is not going to propel teens into the back seat of their parents’ car at the mere sight of a latex prophylactic. Like education, they are a resource that can be used by those who choose to use them. If teens want to choose abstinence, they should be encouraged to do so. But, with more and more teens losing their virginity at a younger age, it would be naive to expect abstinence to be the only birth control they will practice. We have to stop looking away and pretending a solution will appear if we just ignore it. Teens need to know what kind of birth control options they have. In the United States, teenagers, ages 15-19, account for one quarter of all births in the United States; compare that to the rest of the world where only one-fifth of the births are mothered by teens. As one of the most advanced nations on the planet, we need to use our technology to help prevent a population catastrophe. Many European countries come close to having zero population growth, largely because universal health care provides birth control. The government cannot force families to not have children or for that same matter tell make.” Family planning should be a personal choice, but it should also be an informed one. a woman if she should or shouldn't carry a child to term. Almost half of all pregnancies in Utah and the United States are unplanned. This does not mean that the child is unwanted, it says that the parents were not making a conscious decision to have a child, when conception occurred. Deliberate family planning should be like planning for anything in life. When you buy a car, you time and budget for the decisions about birth control, pregnancy and family planning, and perhaps use a little of Envision Utah's own thinking... “The underlying philosophy of Envision Utah is that if you give people good purchase. “All we are asking is an awareness that when you bring children into the world, you're adding to that 6 billion and can your family support it, can the community you live in support, can your state, can your nation, can your world support it and what are you going to give and take to make sure that that can happen and that's why there was a partnership with the environmental groups,” said Karrie Galloway of the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. “We can solve these problems, but if we don't plan for them as leaders do have to give their constituents Alexandra L. Woodruff is a regular contributor to The Zephyr. SUBSCRIBE TO THE ZEPHYR Details on Page 3 Utah has such a high birth rate because of this state’s unique culture; even Envision | Teaching from the Voice of Nature and the sacred Voice within uth 20 140 S Sout LOOK FOR THE SHAMAN'S INSTITUTE in MOAB this Spring! Call: 520.498.1102 800-4 0 E 47-A\ TRY OU RWE fandangoOme for info & class schedule shamansinstitute@hotmail.com hz mt ii ~S met to make But informed what the impacts of each of those different approaches might be.” That is from Envision Utah's Scenarios Manager, DJ Baxter. Good education, good logic...get it? Birth Control THE SHAMAN'S INSTITUTE Both must be choices. the power information they'll make good decisions or maybe better decisions. So what we want to do is generate different information about different ways we can accommodate growth and Envision Utah is thinking about doing, they've left out that one equation, how many kids are you planning for?” Mormon a responsibly VERNIGHT ACCOMODATIONS! TELY THE |