To the President and Congress of the United States:

I have the honor to transmit for your consideration the Final Report, containing the findings and recommendations, of the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future, pursuant to Sec. 8, PL 91-213.

After two years of concentrated effort, we have concluded that, in the long run, no substantial benefits will result from further growth of the Nation’s population, rather that the gradual stabilization of our population through voluntary means would contribute significantly to the Nation’s ability to solve its problems. We have looked for, and have not found, any convincing economic argument for continued population growth. The health of our country does not depend on it, nor does the vitality of business nor the welfare of the average person.

The recommendations offered by this Commission are directed towards increasing public knowledge of the causes and consequences of population change, facilitating and guiding the processes of population movement, maximizing information about human reproduction and its consequences for the family, and enabling individuals to avoid unwanted fertility.

To these ends we offer this report in the hope that our findings and recommendations will stimulate serious consideration of an issue that is of great consequence to present and future generations.

Respectfully submitted for the Commission,

THE Commission on Population Growth and the American Future has formally presented its report to me today, thus completing its 2 years of work.
The men and women on this panel have performed a valuable public service in identifying and examining a wide range of problems related to population, and have contributed to an emerging debate of great significance to the future of our Nation.

I wish to thank the able and energetic Chairman of the Commission, Mr. John D. Rockefeller 3d, for his tireless efforts, not only on this Commission but in other capacities, to focus the Nation’s attention on these important issues.

The extensive public discussion already generated by this report clearly indicates the need to continue research in areas touching on population growth and distribution.

While I do not plan to comment extensively on the contents and recommendations of the report, I do feel that it is important that the public know my views on some of the issues raised.

In particular, I want to reaffirm and reemphasize that I do not support unrestricted abortion policies. As I stated on April 3, 1971, when I revised abortion policies in military hospitals, I consider abortion an unacceptable form of population control. In my judgment, unrestricted abortion policies would demean human life. I also want to make it clear that I do not support the unrestricted distribution of family planning services and devices to minors. Such measures would do nothing to preserve and strengthen close family relationships.

I have a basic faith that the American people themselves will make sound judgments regarding family size and frequency of births, judgments that are conducive both to the public interest and to personal family goals–and I believe in the right of married couples to make these judgments for themselves.
While disagreeing with the general thrust of some of the Commission’s recommendations, I wish to extend my thanks to the members of the Commission for their work and for having assembled much valuable information.

The findings and conclusions of the Commission should be of great value in assisting governments at all levels to formulate policy. At the Federal level, through our recent reorganization of the Executive Office of the President, we have the means through the Domestic Council and the Office of Management and Budget to follow up on the Commission’s report. The recommendations of the Commission will be taken into account as we formulate our national growth and population research policies, and our agency budgets through these processes for the years ahead.

But shortly after receiving the report, Nixon rejected it. Nixon, concerned about his re-election, according to Rockefeller, bowed to political pressures, in particular vocal religious and conservative groups, and disavowed the report’s key recommendations.

Rockefeller’s letter also noted that the commission had looked for but did not find any convincing economic argument for continued population growth. It called for an early end to further population increases, appealing to Americans to abandon their “ideological addiction to growth” and the outdated pro-natalist biases rooted in their social institutions. Even businesspeople on the commission supported the central, near heretical finding: “The health of our country does not depend on population growth, nor does the vitality of business, nor the welfare of the average person.”

The commission also said that population growth is a major factor affecting domestic demand for resources and the deterioration of the environment. Slower population growth would reduce pressures on the environment and the depletion of resources as well as gain time to find solutions to the nation’s problems.

The commission confronted other explosive issues. It recommended decriminalizing abortion, removing legal barriers to obtaining contraceptives, providing sex education in schools, freezing legal immigration to no more than 400,000 a year, stopping illegal immigration, approving the Equal Rights Amendment and ensuring freedom from discrimination based on sex.

The group dismissed charges that it would have the government tell citizens how many children they could have. Its aim was freedom of choice, under which “it would be equally honorable to marry or not, to be childless or not, to have one child or two, or more. Our goal is less regimentation of reproductive behavior, not more.”
Although the report and its recommendations were rejected, some of the suggestions came to fruition later. In 1973, Roe v. Wade decriminalized abortion. Most states dismantled laws restricting contraceptives and expanded sex education in schools. And much progress has been made on banning sex discrimination.

Notable demographic changes, of course, have occurred in the country since the 1972 report. America’s population has expanded by more than 100 million, to 313 million. Average fertility has declined close to the replacement level of about two children for each family, and teenage pregnancy is at its lowest level in 40 years. Legal immigration has increased nearly threefold, to about 1.1 million a year, and the number of people living illegally in the US is more than 11 million.

Yet the US still has no population policy. Given the November presidential election and the political climate in Washington, it seems doubtful that Congress will address population issues, especially immigration reform, soon.

When the government does begin to debate population policy again, it will be useful to consider demographic realities, future population projections and likely environmental costs. Even with replacement fertility, the US population is projected to exceed 400 million by midcentury. Most of the growth is a result of immigration by migrants and their descendants.

Embracing the traditional pro-growth ethic that “more is better” is as unacceptable now as it was decades ago.