Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading magazine with a pro-abortion slant has painted an international pro-life group as racist because it is concerned about the severe underpopulation problems plaguing, Europe, Russia, Japan and other parts of the world. The magazine will release an article on the World Congress of Families in its March 3 issue.

The article, "Missing: The 'Right' Babies," written by reporter Kathryn Joyce, attempts to paint the pro-life group and others sounding the alarm about the coming demographic winter as concerned only with preserving the white majority of Europe and the United States.

The organization told LifeNews.com that characterization is ironic given that the population control movement, which The Nation supports, was started by Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger to limit the birth of ethnic populations.

The group said the article calls the World Congress of Families an organization made up mostly of “Mormon, Catholic and evangelicals” and “token links” to Jews, Muslins or others with a pro-life perspective who aren’t of European decent.

But Alan Carlson, the international secretary of the group, told LifeNews.com that the organization has worldwide support from nations and ethnic groups considered minorities in the United States and Europe.

"Speakers and delegates at our four Congresses to date have come from Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas. They represent all of the world's races and religions. We are united not by doctrine or ancestry, but by our common concern for the fate of the natural family, the cornerstone of civilization,” he said.

Carlson pointed out that the 2004 international meeting of the group’s leaders and activists occurred in Mexico City and that a coalition of African pro-life groups have put in a bid to hold the next event in Nigeria.

While the magazine depicts the group as racist, Carlson says nothing in the article rebuts the organization’s facts showing that several parts of the world are experiencing severe underpopulation.

"Tellingly, there isn't a single statistic in Joyce's ad hominem attack – which leaves the impression that demographic winter is a manufactured crisis, used to play on fears of the Western world to build support for the natural family,” he told LifeNews.com.

In fact, worldwide, birthrates have declined by 50% in the last half-century.

With a birthrate of 1.3 -- a rate of 2.1 is necessary to replace a population and higher to grow it -- the groups says Europe is in serious trouble.

“But so are Africa, Asia and the Middle East – a phenomenon to which we regularly refer. While still at above replacement level, one of the greatest declines in fertility has been in Iran,”the group explained, showing that underpopulation doesn't just threaten majority Caucasion nations.

Carlson concluded: "The anti-family left, of which The Nation is an integral part, simply seems to be terrified of our success at building a multi-racial, multi-denominational pro-family alliance."

ACTION: Send your complaints to The Nation, 33 Irving Place New York, New York 10003, (p) 212-209-5400, (f) 212-982-9000, or send a letter to the editor.

Related web sites:
World Congress of Families - http://www.worldcongress.org