Editing Compulsory sterilization (section)

== As a part of human population planning ==
Human population planning is the practice of artificially altering the rate of growth of a human population. Historically, human population planning has been implemented by limiting the population's [[birth rate]], usually by government mandate, and has been undertaken as a response to factors including high or increasing levels of [[poverty]], [[carrying capacity|environmental concerns]], religious reasons, and [[Human overpopulation|overpopulation]]. While population planning can involve measures that improve people's lives by giving them greater control of their reproduction, some programs have exposed them to exploitation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.populationconcern.org.uk/free_downloads.asp |title=Interact Worldwide Downloads |publisher=Interact Worldwide |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111115221710/http://www.populationconcern.org.uk/free_downloads.asp |archive-date=15 November 2011 }}</ref>

In the 1977 textbook ''Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment'', authors Paul and Anne Ehrlich, and [[John Holdren]] discuss a variety of means to address human overpopulation, including the possibility of compulsory sterilization.<ref>{{cite web|last=Egnor|first=Michael|date=14 August 2009|title=The Inconvenient Truth About Population Control, Part 2; Science Czar John Holdren's Endorsement of Involuntary Sterilization|url=http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/08/the_inconvenient_truth_about_p023831.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005193751/http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/08/the_inconvenient_truth_about_p023831.html|archive-date=5 October 2016|access-date=3 October 2016|website=evolutionnews.org}}</ref> This book received renewed media attention with the appointment of Holdren as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]], largely from conservative pundits who have published scans of the textbook online.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Goldberg|first=Michelle|date=2009-07-21|title=Holdren's Controversial Population Control Past|url=https://prospect.org/api/content/8d1d9e25-cd3b-54cf-ba9b-ccab766af4dc/|access-date=2020-08-25|website=The American Prospect|language=en-us}}</ref> Several forms of compulsory sterilization are mentioned, including the proposal for vasectomies for men with three or more children in India in the 1960s,<ref>{{Cite news |first=Terrence |last=McCoy |title=The forgotten roots of India's mass sterilization program|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/14/the-malthusian-roots-of-indias-mass-sterilization-program/|access-date=2020-08-25|newspaper=Washington Post|language=en}}</ref> sterilizing women after the birth of their second or third child, birth control implants as a form of removable, long-term sterilization, a licensing system allotting a certain number of children per woman,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Heer|first=David M.|date=March 1975|title=Marketable licenses for babies: Boulding's proposal revisited|journal=Social Biology|language=en|volume=22|issue=1|pages=1–16|doi=10.1080/19485565.1975.9988142|pmid=1188404|issn=0037-766X}}</ref> economic and quota systems of having a certain number of children,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Russett|first=Bruce M.|date=June 1970|title=Communications|journal=Journal of Conflict Resolution|volume=14|issue=2|pages=287–291|doi=10.1177/002200277001400209|s2cid=220640867|issn=0022-0027}}</ref> and adding a sterilant to drinking water or food sources, although the authors are clear that no such sterilant exists nor is one in development.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|title=The Human Predicament: Finding a Way Out|website=[[Fox News]]|url=https://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/072109_holdren2.pdf}}</ref> The authors state that most of these policies are not in practice, have not been tried, and most will likely "remain unacceptable to most societies."<ref name=":02" />

Holdren stated in his confirmation hearing that he no longer supports the creation of an optimum population by the U.S. government.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Glenn Beck claims science czar John Holdren proposed forced abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2009/jul/29/glenn-beck/glenn-beck-claims-science-czar-john-holdren-propos/|access-date=2020-08-25|website=PolitiFact|language=en-US}}</ref> However, the population control policies suggested in the book are indicative of the concerns about [[Overpopulation Debate|overpopulation]], also discussed in ''[[The Population Bomb]]'' a book written by [[Paul R. Ehrlich]] and Anne Ehrlich predicting major societal upheavals due to [[Human overpopulation|overpopulation]]. As this concern about overpopulation gained political, economic, and social currency, attempts to reduce fertility rates, often through compulsory sterilization, were results of this drive to reduce overpopulation.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mann|first=Charles C.|title=The Book That Incited a Worldwide Fear of Overpopulation|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/book-incited-worldwide-fear-overpopulation-180967499/|access-date=2020-08-25|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}</ref> These coercive and abusive population control policies impacted people around the world in different ways, and continue to have social, health, and political consequences, one of which is lasting mistrust in current family planning initiatives by populations who were subjected to coercive policies like forced sterilization.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hartmann, Betsy |title=Reproductive rights and wrongs : the global politics of population control|year=2016|publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-60846-733-4|oclc=945949149}}</ref> Population control policies were widely critiqued by women's health movement in the 1980s and 1990s, with the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 in Cairo initiating a shift from population control to [[reproductive rights]] and the contemporary [[reproductive justice]] movement.<ref>{{Cite news|title=A Post-Colonial Feminist Critique of Population Control Policies -|newspaper=Australian Youth Health Connect|url=https://muhi.org.au/a-post-colonial-feminist-critique-of-population-control-policies/|access-date=2020-08-25|language=en-US|archive-date=13 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210313051125/https://muhi.org.au/a-post-colonial-feminist-critique-of-population-control-policies/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Feminist Perspectives on Population Issues {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/feminist-perspectives-population-issues|access-date=2020-08-25|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> However, new forms of population control policies, including coercive sterilization practices are a global issue and a reproductive rights and justice issue.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bhatia|first1=Rajani|last2=Sasser|first2=Jade S.|last3=Ojeda|first3=Diana|last4=Hendrixson|first4=Anne|last5=Nadimpally|first5=Sarojini|last6=Foley|first6=Ellen E.|date=2019-04-03|title=A feminist exploration of 'populationism': engaging contemporary forms of population control|journal=Gender, Place & Culture|volume=27|issue=3|pages=333–350|doi=10.1080/0966369x.2018.1553859|s2cid=150974096|issn=0966-369X}}</ref>