Contact: Colin Mason, Population Research Institute, 540-622-5240, pri@pop.org

FRONT ROYAL, Va., Feb. 20 /Christian Newswire/ -- Steven W. Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute (PRI), responded to a hit piece published by The Nation, America's largest-circulation leftwing publication, which accuses PRI of fomenting "race panic" by reporting on plummeting birthrates in Europe.

The lead article by Kathryn Joyce, who entitled her screed "Missing: the 'Right' Babies," falsely suggests that PRI is only concerned about maintaining white majorities in Europe and the United States in light of declining native birthrates and increasing immigration from North Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

"This absurd charge completely misrepresents our work, which has been overwhelmingly focused on helping those that the Left would characterize as 'women of color,'" said Mosher. "Take our work on China, where we have exposed the forced abortions which young Chinese women are being subjected to under the brutal "one-child policy." Or consider Peru, where we stopped Alberto Fujimori's infamous sterilization campaign, which was primarily directed against the Quechua-speaking Indians of the Altiplano."

"Population control programs--which we oppose and the Left supports--overwhelmingly target religious and ethnic minorities," Mosher continued. "They invariably lead to human rights abuses. At the same time they undermine primary health care and thus raise infant and child mortality rates."

"As I note in my forthcoming book, Population Control: Real Costs and Illusory Benefits," birthrates are falling around the globe. This isn't a white vs. yellow vs. black problem, as The Nation suggests. It's a human problem. It poses serious challenges to the survival of economies, old-age pension funds, and to entire nations. And it has nothing to do with color."

"It may be that the largely white and sterile readers of The Nation are unworried about the decline of the human family--there is a good deal of misanthropic sentiment and self-loathing in leftist circles--but we at PRI believe that a candid debate on the reality of demographic decline is necessary."

Mosher concluded, "Before Joyce started imputing racist motivations, she should have asked me about my ancestry, which includes Native American blood, or about my children, who are half-Hispanic, and range in appearance from little Geronimos to little Bridgets. But apparently she couldn't see beyond the color of my blue eyes. Who's the racist here?"

The article by Kathryn Joyce ("Missing: The 'Right' Babies") will appear in the March 3 issue, but is now available online at The Nation's website.

For more information, go to www.pop.org

The Population Research Institute (PRI) was founded in 1989 by Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, PhD and is dedicated to: (1) ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning", (2) opposing outdated social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of overpopulation, (3) informing the public about the social and economic benefits of moderate population growth, and (4) promoting pro-natal and pro-family attitudes and policies worldwide. Steven Mosher is the author of numerous books, including A Mother's Ordeal, available in 11 languages.