Last Wednesday July 11, was World Population Day and the United Nation’s Fund for Population Activities in a statement says, the international community should focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues. This year’s theme is “Family Planning is a Human Right.”  

According to the UNFPA, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 International Conference on Human Rights, where family planning was, for the first time, globally affirmed to be a human right. The Teheran Proclamation states, “Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”   

The UNFPA says that tragically reliable family planning methods are out of reach for hundreds of millions of people. Many resort to unsafe, unreliable methods, some of which can be dangerous. UNFPA has collected dozens of examples of harmful and ineffective strategies people employ while trying to prevent pregnancies. Together, these examples highlight the urgent need to improve access to, and information about, modern, reliable family planning.  

According to figures compiled by UNFPA and other agencies, the total population for last year was about 7,550 million. For men and women, last year’s life expectancy rates  were 70 and 74 per cent. The rate of unmet need for family planning among women aged 15-49 is 12 per cent.   

The highest populated country is China with about 1,409.5 million last year followed by India with about 1,339.2 million. Last year Sri Lanka’s population was 20.9 million.   

To mark World Population Day, the Sri Lanka Health Ministry’s Family Health Bureau and the Health Promotion Bureau held a news conference where some shocking or sensational if not shameful disclosures were made. Dr. Sanath Lanerolle, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Castle Street Hospital disclosed that according to reliable information, as many as one thousand abortions were taking place in Sri Lanka every day. A majority are among women of the age of about thirty five but the disturbing trend is that a large number of abortions involve teenagers between the ages of fifteen and nineteen.   

Sri Lanka is considered a religious country with Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam being preached even in remote areas and every day on television and radio. Parents and teachers are also expected to guide the children in the right way of living and how to build moral values and character. But if about one thousand voiceless, helpless and innocent unborn children are being killed every day that means the massacre of the innocents amounts to about thirty thousand a month and three hundred and sixty five thousand a year.   

This is a ruthless form of terrorism, three hundred and sixty five thousand unborn babies being massacred every year while respect for human life and any form of life is preached by all religions. In the western world, many countries are seeing battles between those who are supposed to be pro-life and those who are pro-choice meaning that a woman should have the choice whether she should abort a child or not. While the pro-choice campaigners are growing in numbers and popularity, little is spoken about the right of the voiceless, unborn child. In Sri Lanka, such campaigns are not widespread but last Wednesday’s disclosures are a serious indictment on the government, religions and religious leaders, parents and teachers.   

We urge the Family Health Bureau, the Health Promotion Bureau, the National Child Protection Authority and other state institutions to coordinate a mission with religious leaders and school authorities to curb this disgraceful and deplorable trend in abortions. Religious founders have warned that those who harm little children deserve to be thrown into the deepest ocean with millstones tied around their necks. On that basis, we dread to think of the fate of those who kill unborn children. Saint Mother Teresa began her mission by telling those who wanted to abort children that she and her missionaries were ready to tenderly care for such children. It was this vision and insight that inspired her to say, “love till it hurts, then the love will remain and the hurts will go away”.