Evening star., 1959-11-28
Continued From First Page

OcClafeQ.
The United States has neve
spent any foreign aid fund
on birth control projects ant
has no present plans to do SC
The issue arises increasingly il
the discussion of the problem o
exploding" populations in un.
derdeveloped areas. however
and will undoubtedly be sub
ject of much future debate.
It enters particularly into thr
foreign aid picture becausu
American dollars channeleC
into countries such as Indi;
may be offset before they arr
spent by population increase.
that further retard economic
growth.
Bishops Give Views
The Catholic bishops asserted
there was abundant evidence
OF a systematic, concerted eff.
fort" to swing United State.
public opinion behind use Of
public funds to promote birth
control in economically re.
tarded countries.
Catholics will not support
ANY public assistance either
at home or abroad to promote
artificial birth prevention, abor.
tion or sterilization whether
through direct aid or means OF
international organizations, u
the bishops said.
The statement of Bishop Pike
was released by the Planned
Parenthood Federation OF
America, in New York. He is
chairman of the groups Clergy
mems Advisory Committee.
Report Sees Peril
The concern of the Catholic
bishops apparently was pro-
voked by a report prepared by
the Stanford Research Institute,
and made public by the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee in
September.
1t warned that the explosive
growth in world population
would eventually make "popu-
!ation control" imperative. The
report suggested recently de-
Veloped oral contraceptives
might be one solution.
Acknowledging that this
would not be accepted in Cath
clio countries, it also discussed
the possibility of medical re-
sinement of the rhythm method
OF birth control, which is ap-
proved under certain conditions
by the Catholic church.
The report said it might be
advisable for the United States
to join with other countries in
providing research funds for
birth control projects, includ-
ing large-Scale testing of such
devices as oral contraceptives.
Senate Foreign Relations
Chairman ,Fulbright, Democrat
Of Arkansas, emphasized at the
time that the committee, which
paid for the study. was free to
accept or reject" its findings.
The International Co-opera-
tion Administration pointed out
yesterday that the United
States has never spent "one
penny" of foreign aid funds to
promote birth control.
Unitarians Critical
The Unitarian Fellowship for
Social Justice said here that
it is unalterably opposed to the
Catholic bishops statement.
In a statement issued by its
executive director, Mrs. Paul
Blanshard, the fellowship said:
"We believe that no family,
anywhere, should have more
children than it can properly
house. feed, clothe, educate and
spiritually sustain.
Freedom of choice in regard
to the spacing of children is a
basic human right :"
The statement added: "it is
grossly unfair for the Catholic
bishops to couple in the sem
tence birth control, abortion
and sterilization"
Data on Church Stand
From its Office here, the Ma
tional Catholic Welfare Con-
ference released further back
ground information detailing
the church position on birth
control and the population
problem.
It recalled that the late Pope
Plus XII said in January, 1858,
that the problem of overpopu-
lation of the world is only part
ly real and partly unreasonably
feared"
Noting that the Catholic
church teaches that the use of
contraceptives is wrong and
immoral, it said:
mo amount of theorizing or
use of nice words to describe
something that is in itself i'm
moral and against the laws of
nature, can change the internal
character of the act. Hence the
Catholic position on artificial
birth control remains the same
in 1859, 1909 and 1889"
To Continue Local Work
Mrs. Gerhard Gesell, presi-
dent of the Planned Parenthood
Association of the District of
Columbia, responded to queries
with this statement:
Since the Catholic bishops
statement was couched on the
national level and the response
by Bishop Pike and others was
also on that level, as a local
affiliate we feel we should not
participate in a national con-
troversy. We will, of course,
continue our work here, which