Author Stan Becker reads “One Friend’s Experience of Clearness Regarding Childbearing”

September 24, 2015

By Stan Becker

Excerpt from One Friend’s Experience of Clearness Regarding Childbearing:

Contemplating words to share about a decision not to have biological children is somewhat awkward from where I am sitting now in Niamey, Niger. In this country, women have an average of 7.6 births each, according to a 2012 demographic survey. Colleagues here and the culture generally express sorrow for childless persons. I have worked in the population field for the last 40 years and am presently helping the Niger National Statistics Institute undertake a survey on contraceptive use.

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Stan Becker

Stan Becker is a member of Homewood Meeting in Baltimore, Md. He has worked as a demographer for 40 years and has traveled among Friends in Baltimore Yearly Meeting and beyond under the concern about rapid population growth.  He has served on the board of the American Friends Service Committee, the steering committee of Friends Committee on Unity with Nature (now Quaker Earthcare Witness), and the general committee of FCNL. He lives with his wife, Fannie, in Baltimore.

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