Curbing the Population Explosion Headed for the Year 2000

Regarding the editorial "Clinton and Population Policy," April 9: Thank you for bringing the need for increased international family planning assistance to your readers' attention.

The urgency with which we must act to defuse the world's population explosion cannot be overstated. The actions we take during this decade will make the differences between whether the earth's population stabilizes at 10 billion during the next century (nearly double its current level) or rises to more than 15 billion (triple its current level). World population can be stabilized if family planning is available universally by the year 2000. Members of the Congressional Population Coalition are advocating

that the United States contribute to a United Nations-sponsored plan to reach that goal, which would entail spending $300 million more than the US is spending this year.

Several of us in Congress are also drafting a comprehensive population stabilization and reproductive health bill that would bring about the widespread availability of family planning services and child-mortality programs, as well as better educational, economic, social, and political opportunities for women.

This legislation will also enable the US to again contribute to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation, both of which are denied funding under the two previous administrations' policies. We hope to make population assistance a central purpose of US foreign policy and help restore the US to its former role as a world leader in this area. Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson, Washington Co-chair of the Congressional Coalition on Population and Development

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