Single mothers on welfare are blamed for budget deficits, teenage girls for a so-called epidemic of illegitimate births, immigrants for job losses, young men of color for crime, and the poor, dark, overpopulating masses in the Third World for environmental degradation, the spread of AIDS, and political instability.

At international women's conferences in Cairo, and then at Beijing, the U.S. government portrayed itself as the defender of women's rights and human rights in general. At home the facts speak otherwise. The reforms of population policy that women's groups fought for in Cairo have not been implemented in the U.S. Instead, we have a de facto population control policy centered on social exclusion.

In the United States, conservative economic and social policies go hand-in- hand with a resurgence of neo-Malthusianism, racism, and social Darwinism. The survival of the richest is the new mandate, legitimized through scapegoating the poor. Single mothers on welfare are blamed for budget deficits, teenage girls for a so-called epidemic of illegitimate births, immigrants for job losses, young men of color for crime, and the poor, dark, overpopulating masses in the Third World for environmental degradation, the spread of AIDS, and political instability. The main components of this conservative backlash include:

• Changes in social welfare policy. They end 60 years of guaranteed aid to poor families and threaten millions of poor women and children with hunger, homelessness, and the lack of an escape route from domestic violence. These measures are largely based on myths, including misconceptions about poor women's fertility.
  The imprisonment of growing numbers of young men of color.In the name of fighting drugs and crime, the U.S. now has one of the highest per capita incarceration rates in the world. Young black men face much reduced life expectancy due to violence and disease, but we live in a society which would rather put them in chain gangs than provide them with education and jobs.
  
• Repressive anti-immigrant measures. Immigrants are losing their rights to social benefits and are criminalized and dehumanized. Through the 'greening of hate,' conservative anti-immigrant groups are using the population issue as a window through which to penetrate the environmental movement. According to these groups, immigrants, by contributing to U.S. population growth are destroying the environment in addition to draining public resources and causing crime. Many of the big names in the environmental movement have signed onto this agenda.
  
• The politics of contraception and abortion. Long-acting, provider-dependent contraceptives such as Norplant and Depo Provera are promoted in poor areas and communities of color, at the same time that abortion access is restricted through limitations in public funding. 'Choice' is a luxury of the middle and upper classes, and even for them, it is no means guaranteed. In many states, violent attacks on abortion clinics, shortages of providers, restrictive waiting periods and parental consent procedures limit access.

These challenges demand new political strategies and formations, and new ways of working together. I hope we can find new ways to understand and fight against the resurgence of population control, the internationalization of the anti-abortion movement, and unsafe technologies. In an era where the health of corporations takes over the wealth of human beings, we need to rekindle the radical vision of solidarity out of which the women's health movement was born.

Betsy Hartmann is Director of the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College and co-coordinator of the Committee on Women, Population and the Environment.