Population Action International (PAI)

In addition to making contraception and abortion procedures more widely available in the developing world, PAI also has developed a global health-care system in the decades since its founding.

History

Population Action International was founded in 1965 as the Population Crisis Committee to address perceived global overpopulation by introducing contraception and expanding abortion access in the developing world. ¹

It was founded by American advertising mogul and founder of Dixie Cup Company Hugh Moore and Major General William Henry Draper Jr., with the former influencing the latter on overpopulation theory. Moore was convinced that the world was headed toward an overpopulation crisis by William Vogt’s 1948 book Road to Survival, which claimed that an overpopulated planet would lead to horrendous wars, communism, and the breakdown of civilization. In response, Moore used his wealth and connections to advance population control. ²

Moore’s friendship with Draper would greatly push his cause to the upper echelons of power. Draper had influence with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who formed the Committee to Study the United States Military Assistance Program (nicknamed the “Draper Committee), an advisory council for the U.S. government that was “top heavy with military men” according to then-U.S. Senator William Fulbright (D-AR). The day after the committee came into existence, Moore sent a wire to Draper telling him, “If your committee does not look into the impact and implications of the population explosion, you will be derelict in your duty.” The Draper Committee then drafted three recommendations on population control: aid to developing countries to establish programs that would put checks on growth, aid to maternal and child health programs, and support for population research by the U.S., the UN, and foreign countries. ²

The Draper Committee’s 1959 presidential report recommended that the federal government allocate resources to defeat the alleged pending overpopulation crisis. The report, accessible via the Eisenhower Library’s database, is primarily about the threat that communist dictatorships posed to the U.S. and its allies. Notes on the committee mailings sent for its several meeting sessions referred to a “population bomb booklet” as well as “The Population Explosion,” which was distributed for two meetings. ³

“The Population Bomb” pamphlet was written in 1954 by Moore and is not to be confused with a 1968 book of the same name by Paul Ehrlich, who received permission to use the title from Moore. Before the pamphlet influenced Ehrlich, it influenced the New York Times, which published an article called “The Population Explosion” in 1961. Moore via Draper also influenced Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, with Nixon creating an Office of Population under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). ² PAI said that the Office of Population began with $35 million in funding in 1967 and in 2011 (when the document was written) had reached $600 million. ⁴

Together, Moore and Draper also organized the founding conference of the World Population Emergency Campaign (WPEC), a private organization administered by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and which in turn helped raise funds for IPPF. WPEC was established to spread fear about the potential world population explosion and raise money to fund international birth control programs. WPEC, with its slogan “Not just another cause, but the problem of our time,” aggressively propagated its message through buying adverts in the pages of the New York Times, through holding private conferences with top business executives, and mass mailings with signatures from Margaret Sanger and novelist James A. Michener. ⁵

The money that WPEC raised for IPPF’s Western Hemisphere Region projects was funneled to the Family Planning Association of India for a mobile field clinic, the IPPF Far Eastern Region for training Indonesian doctors, and the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau in New York City “for free distribution abroad of birth control literature and devices.” ⁵

Sanger fought back against their rhetoric about communist exploitation of overpopulation in WPEC in their newsletters. Eventually, WPEC merged with Planned Parenthood Federation of America in the fall of 1961. On the committee member roll for WPEC included Theodore Edison, William H. Vanderbilt, Thomas S. Lamont, and Goodhue Livingston, Jr. ⁵

In the early decades of PAI’s existence, it managed to gather international support for the creation of the United Nations Population Fund in 1969, which became the de facto leading international initiative on overpopulation concerns, and to raise millions of dollars for IPPF during the 1970s. In 1974, PAI was able to convince the United Nations to declare 1974 as World Population Year and hold the first World Population Conference in Bucharest, Romania, at which 135 countries agreed to the World Population Plan of Action. Several conferences of this kind were held in Bucharest, Mexico City, and Cairo through the mid-1990s, at which point it became a planned five-year commemorative event. ¹

Activities

Population Action International is an international non-governmental organization that distributes aid to developing countries and provides them with access to contraception and abortion services. ⁶

In addition to making contraception and abortion procedures more widely available in the developing world, PAI also has developed a global healthcare system as it grew over the decades since its founding. ⁶

Finances

PAI has claimed to accept no government funding, choosing instead to solely rely on private donations. ¹

In 2022, PAI reported $16.8 million in total assets, $17.1 million in support and revenue, and total expenses of $16.9 million. ⁷

Leadership

As of 2023, the president of Population Action International was Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins. She is the founder of Humanitas Global, and has worked as executive director at the NGO coalition No Wasted Lives and as vice president of KABOOM!, an American nonprofit focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion in American cities that received support from MacKenzie Scott (nee Bezos). Nabeeha was previously involved with the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS initiative in the early 2000s. ⁸