I loudly applaud the newspaper’s Our Opinion of March 4, “Reproductive health of women gets new chance,” about funding women’s access to birth control.

The editorial stated, “In 2008, the state of Maine spent around $12 million to cover costs (prenatal care, labor and delivery) of 3,500 births resulting from unplanned pregnancies. By reducing the number of unintended pregnancies, L.D. 319 would save the state an estimated $3 million-plus a year.”

Besides the savings, it’s the humane, decent thing to do. Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a similar bill last year, and that’s what I would expect from someone with 17 siblings. Likely clueless about demographics and population issues. Which brings me to my soapbox:

Most folks don’t understand, as well, the dire implications of human population explosion: we’ve gone from 1 billion in 1800 to eight times that just 215 years later. That’s an eight-fold increase in just three human lifetimes. If the human race is 100,000 years old, that increase over the last 215 years is absolutely stunning and scary. Most wars are fought over resources, and soon that resource is likely to be water.

L.D. 319 is the humane, decent, right thing to do, which is why LePage may veto it again.

It’s getting very late for people to wise up about demographics.

Ted Elliott

Augusta