LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Reproductive rights are an environmental issue

To The Editor:

As human reproduction is aggressively promoted by conservative candidates, my recent return to Georgia from a “free state” as a reproductive-age woman was a difficult decision. 

Meanwhile, Earth’s life-support systems fail to support over 8 billion people worldwide, species extinctions and global temperatures are skyrocketing, and climate impacts threaten food supplies, ecosystems, and human health. Stigmatizing birth control while piously sponsoring reproduction indicates an extreme disconnect from much more critical, existential human issues. Empowering women with agency and birth control are the only ethically available means to sustainably slow exponential population growth. 

If there were more political support for women’s health care or social programs to navigate the rampant inflation currently overextending Georgia families, I might be more understanding of this hyperfocus on women’s reproductive rights. Instead, senselessly advocating for higher birth rates at the cost of the personal liberties of women across the state appears to be a diversion by which Georgia politicians continue to fail to meet the needs of the people.

Drake Lee-Patterson

Saint Simon’s Island, Ga.

Drake Lee-Patterson is the assistant director for the Center for a Sustainable Coast.