Population Research Institute

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Population Research Institute
Population research institute.PNG
Founder Paul Marx (priest)
Type think tank
Headquarters Front Royal, Virginia
President
 Steven W. Mosher
Website pop.org

The Population Research Institute (PRI) is a non-profit organization based in Front Royal, Virginia, USA. PRI describes itself as "a non-profit research group whose goals are to expose the myth of overpopulation" as well as "human rights abuses committed in population control programs, and to make the case that people are the world's greatest resource."[1] It operates programs against the promoted advancement of contraception, sterilization, and abortion. PRI is a 501(c)(3) organization. The institute claims contacts to pro-life groups in over 30 countries.[2] Results are being released in an own online magazine, PRI Review.[3]

Origins

The Population Research Institute was founded in 1989 by Paul Marx, a family sociologist, Catholic priest and Benedictine monk.[4] PRI became an independent institute in 1996.

Image from PRI criticizing the one-child policy

As of 2015 the Institute was headed by Steven W. Mosher, an anthropologist and author who studied in China during the beginning of the one-child policy in the late 1970s and the early 1980s.[5]

China

The institute condemns China's one-child policy.[6] Mosher states that "[t]he Chinese Party-State has asserted for over three decades that the one-child policy is ‘entirely voluntary.’ But this assertion of ‘voluntarism’ is no more true now than it was when I saw women who were five, seven, and even nine months pregnant held down on the operating table and aborted. Women continue to be arrested, aborted, and sterilized against their will at this very moment.”

PRI asserts a causal link between the one-child policy and China's imbalanced sex-ratio and aging population.[7]

Programs

Overpopulation

PRI created the website Overpopulation is a Myth in 2010.[8][9]

Heartbeat legislation

PRI advocates legislation banning abortion after a prenatal heartbeat can be detected. An embryo's heart would start beating about 23/24 days after conception.[10] PRI describes abortion as infanticide and compares it to euthanasia of the elderly.[11]

Family Care Center

As of 2015 PRI operates a facility called Family Care Center, a family welfare and crisis pregnancy center located in Saint Lucia,[12] the home country of its spiritual director, Father Linus Clovis.[13]

Defunding population control programs

According to the Los Angeles Times, PRI successfully lobbied the George W. Bush administration to withhold US$34 to $40 million per year for seven years from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the largest international donor to family planning programs.[14] The PRI says that its mission includes to "[e]xpose the relentless promotion of abortion, abortifacient contraception, and chemical and surgical sterilization in misleadingly labeled 'population stabilization,' 'family planning,' and 'reproductive health' programs".[15] One of the institute's drives calls to end compulsory sterilizations in India,[16] another one bases a renewed demand to defund budgets on its own investigations suggesting a lack of distance between UNFPA activities and coercive Chinese population control.[17]

Fundraising

PRI obtains the vast majority of its funding from charitable contributions, gifts, and grants, with a total revenue of 1.2 million dollars in financial year 2011. Of this, 73.3% was spent on program expenses, 5.7% on administration, and 20.9% on fundraising.[18]

The institute has received funding from The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc. for conferences on human rights in China.[19]

Criticism

Some critics[20] argue that claiming "Overpopulation is a Myth" is deceiving, and contrary to the scientific consensus on the subject.

Ten Million Club Foundation [21] further adds to criticism,[22] accusing PRI of having a hidden religious agenda (against family planning and contraception) that motivates claims that it says are deceiving, saying that those are not backed up by any original research ("[PRI hasn't] as yet published a single peer review paper in any scientific journal").

Politics

PRI encourages voting for "those with Pro-Life guiding principles".[23] PRI has criticized Barack Obama on abortion and family planning related issues.[24] PRI praised the choices of Paul Ryan and Sarah Palin as vice presidential candidates in 2012 and 2008, respectively, for their views on abortion.[25][26]

Vaccination

PRI regards the HPV vaccine Gardasil as unnecessary, ineffective, and potentially dangerous, citing the anti-vaccination advocacy group National Vaccine Information Center among others.[27][28][29][30]

References

  1. ↑ PRI Web site: Who We Are
  2. ↑ PRI Web site: Who We Are
  3. ↑ PRI Web site: PRI Review
  4. ↑ PRI Web site: Our Founder: Fr. Paul Marx, O.S.B.
  5. ↑ PRI Web site: Our President
  6. ↑ PRI Web site: Project: Stop Population Control in China
  7. ↑ PRI Web site: China Ratchets Up One-Child Policy, Part II
  8. ↑ PRI-created Web site "Overpopulation is a Myth"
  9. ↑ PRI Web site: Debunk the Overpopulation Myth
  10. ↑ PRI Web site: Ban Abortions from the Very First Heartbeat
  11. ↑ PRI Web site: Infanticide on Demand?
  12. ↑ PRI Web site: A bold new project to assist mothers in need
  13. ↑ PRI Web site: Meet our Board
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ PRI Web site: Our Mission
  16. ↑ PRI Web site: Stop Forced Sterilizations in India
  17. ↑ PRI Web site:Stop U.S. Tax Dollars From Funding Population Control in China
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ A Response to Critics of Family Planning Programs. http://www.guttmacher.org/ (1 March 2009). Retrieved on 11 July 2013.
  21. ↑ Ten Million Club Foundation. http://www.overpopulationawareness.org/. Retrieved on 11 July 2013.
  22. ↑ Overpopulation Awareness - videos. http://www.overpopulationawareness.org/ (August 2010). Retrieved on 11 July 2013.
  23. ↑ PRI Web site: It's Time to Vote for Life!
  24. ↑ PRI Web site: Question: What Can we Expect From a Second Obama Administration on the Life Issues?
  25. ↑ PRI Web site: Who is Congressman (and now Vice Presidential Candidate) Paul Ryan and what does he mean for a Romney Administration?
  26. ↑ PRI Web site: McCain VP Pick Good for Pro-Lifers
  27. ↑ PRI Web site: What You Should Know about Gardasil (HPV Vaccine)
  28. ↑ PRI Web site: Merck Researcher Admits: Gardasil Guards Against Almost Nothing
  29. ↑ PRI Web site: Teenage Girl Becomes Infertile after Gardasil Vaccination
  30. ↑ PRI Web site: Notes on the HPV Vaccine

External links

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