In the U.S. these policies have lead to the involuntary sterilization of women and the targeting of risky birth control options at the poor in inner cities and on Native American reservations. The Government Accounting Office found in 1976 that 3,000 Native American women were sterilized over a period of four years without using proper consent forms. Grant and Bouvier applaud the approval of the injectable birth control drug Depo-Provera, an option that is highly prone to being used without a patient's full consent. The population policies that Bouvier and Grant advocate are not only ineffective and repressive but blame the disenfranchised for their own misery and serve to further the status quo power relations between poor and rich, women and men, and people of color and whites. The problems that Bouvier and Grant propose to solve are real enough, and population growth plays a role.
Population stabilization is necessary for sustainability.
Where people live and how many children they have is influenced by economic opportunities, and social and environmental conditions as well as access to family planning. Yet, stabilization is not a sufficient solution. Our problems will not be solved simply by cutting down population numbers. The causes of poverty, environmental degradation, and social conflict cannot be neatly singled out. Much work now shows that population growth declines in response to the improvement of women's position in society and the secure access of all to a basic diet, education, and health care.