Stephen Douglas Mumford (born 1942) is an American expert on

fertility Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...

and

population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

.Curriculum vitae
retrieved 2011-01-22.

Education

Mumford was born on August 28, 1942, in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. He did his undergraduate studies in

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

, graduating in 1966. He then earned a master's degree from the

University of Texas School of Public Health The UTHealth School of Public Health is one of six component institutions of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The Texas Legislature authorized the creation of a school of public health in 1947, but did not appropriate fun ...

in 1971 and finished a doctorate from the same institution in 1975.

Career

From 1977 to 1983 he worked as a scientist and research group leader with the International Fertility Research Program in

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States, occupying in North Carolina and hosting more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. The facility is named for its location relative to the three surrounding cities ...

. Since 1984 he has been president of the Center for Research on Population and Security, also located in Research Triangle Park.

Positions on abortion and sterilization

In 1978, Mumford testified before the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

that he believed world population growth, and immigration to the U.S. driven by population growth, to be national security issues that should be addressed by the U.S. military. He has advocated the reduction of birth rates in

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

by large-scale

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

, and by drug-induced permanent mass sterilization, and has been involved in the international distribution of

quinacrine Mepacrine, also called quinacrine or by the trade name Atabrine, is a medication with several uses. It is related to chloroquine and mefloquine. Although formerly available from compounding pharmacies, as of August 2020 it is unavailable in th ...

to developing countries for sterilizing women there. He has strongly criticized the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

for its opposition to

population control Population control is the practice of artificially maintaining the size of any population. It simply refers to the act of limiting the size of an animal population so that it remains manageable, as opposed to the act of protecting a species from ...

and

contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

.Article - Why the Church can't change

References

External links

an organization founded and directed by Mumford {{DEFAULTSORT:Mumford, Stephen D Living people American birth control activists University of Kentucky alumni University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston alumni 1942 births People from Louisville, Kentucky Critics of the Catholic Church UTHealth School of Public Health alumni