Population control? Pfffft. Here’s a baby telling British Squadron Leader Joseph Heaven, an RAF Chaplain, what he thinks of the bill. In Monywa, 1945. PHOTO/WIKICOMMONS
The latest reproductive-rights-trampling tactic to arrive in Asia gives Myanmar’s government the power to control how often women pop one out. See China’s one-child policy for an example of how awesomely these measures work out.
Women in some areas of the country may be banned from having a baby less than 3 years after a previous birth, after a law introducing the creepy-sounding ‘birth-spacing’ practice was passed this week.
The ‘Population Control Bill’, which allows regional governments to ask for presidential permission to limit reproductive rates if population is deemed to be out-sizing resources, was approved by the Union Parliament on Monday, according to The Irrawaddy.
It has been roundly criticised by human rights activists and women’s advocates who say the bill, if given final approval by President Thein Sein, will curtail reproductive rights.
The government says the legislation, which does not carry punishments for those who do not comply, will help poor areas provide better health care services.
But activists fear the law will target the some one million stateless Rohingya Muslims in northern Arakan State, where local authorities in 2013 attempted to implement a two-child limit.
The Population Control Bill is one of four pending pieces of legislation known collectively as the ‘Race and Religion Protection Laws’, one of which requires interfaith couples to seek permission to marry from local officials.
Human Rights Watch’s David Mathieson told the Irrawaddy the development showed that the country’s democratic transition was “going in the wrong direction in so many ways.”
