Challenging Population Control
Challenging Population Control envisions a world where reproductive, environmental, and climate justice is liberated from “overpopulation” politics and eugenics thinking.
We monitor and resist current instances of population control. At the same time, we support comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services that de-center fertility reduction as the primary goal and champion contraceptive safety alongside access.
We promote the free movement of people, across borders and boundaries, and fight xenophobia, militarism, fascism and white supremacy by challenging “overpopulation” narratives that paint migrants, incarcerated people and people living in poverty as excess, dangerous groups.
We champion environmental and climate justice through recognizing the complex causes of environmental problems and debunking overpopulation myths that maintain that population is the primary reason for environmental degradation.
We counter “depopulation” panic about falling birth rates and aging populations, which propels compelled pregnancy in the shadow of Dobbs, anti-immigrant backlash, and rising nativism.
Challenging Population Control actively…
Exposes how population control and eugenics legacies undermine reproductive and environmental justice today.
Serves as a hub for progressive critiques and collective resistance.
Connects US-based activism with international social justice struggles.
The challenging population control program produces research and knowledge to inform the reproductive justice movement.
Learn more about this work through the reports, resources, and articles we publish.
Stop the Blame, 2nd edition
This is the second edition of a research tool originally created in 2010 for academics, activists, and other audiences who are interested in discerning how “overpopulation” politics are transmitted through pictures. It shows the historical precedents to today’s politicized images of overflowing boats carrying migrants, expansive border walls, and crowded streets that are intended to show the impacts of “too many people.”
Wild, White West: Racism and Eco-Fascism in U.S. Environmental Politics
Article on challenging population control idealogoy written by former Challenging Population Control Associate, Chandani Nash, and Anne Hendrixson, Senior Policy Analyst.
Reproductive Justice Beyond Population Control: An Invitation to Funders
Explores how population control as a frame for reproductive health funding harms Black and Brown communities. Written by Etobssie Wako and Anne Hendrixson.
National Science Foundation awards Dr. Rajani Bhatia and CO-PI Anne Hendrixson grant analyzing population science
The NSF grant will facilitate research on how dis- and mis- information around mainstream population and climate science can contribute to conspiratorial and alarmist thinking about shifting demographic trends in the United States, like aging, racial and ethnic composition, and the impact of population on the environment.