New Myanmar law mandates three years between pregnancies

Myanmar, a freshly forged democracy still shaking off a history of military dictatorship, enacted a highly controversial population law over the weekend despite objections from a visiting U.S. diplomat and activists who say the law is oppressive to both women and ethnic minorities. The Buddhist-majority nation, also known as Burma, already is under fire for decades of systematic persecution of minority Rohingya Muslims that has sparked a mass maritime migration, the largest since the Vietnam War.

Silent on the Rohingya debacle, Myanmar shifted its national focus to birth control.

On Saturday, President Thein Sein signed a population control bill requiring a 36-month gap between children for certain mothers and handing regional authorities the power to implement birth spacing in overcrowded areas.

Some argue the legislation is aimed at curbing high birth rates in the Muslim community. “Activists with a racist, anti-Muslim agenda passed this population law, so there is every reason to expect it to be implemented in a discriminatory way,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, according to an organization report earlier this month, adding the bill is “likely to escalate repression and sectarian violence.”

During a recent two-day visit to Myanmar, U,S. Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken cautioned Sein, who also is the army’s commander in chief, and other top officials as to the potentially explosive nature of the population control bill.

“The legislation contains provisions that can be enforced in a manner that would undermine reproductive rights, women’s rights and religious freedom. … These bills can exacerbate ethnic and religious divisions and undermine the country’s efforts to promote tolerance and diversity,” Blinken told reporters Friday.

Sein signed the bill into law just hours after Blinken left the country. Government officials deny targeting Muslims, claiming the bill is a comprehensive measure to lower infant and maternal mortality rates.

Myanmar’s birth-spacing law is the first of a four-part series drafted by hardliner Buddhist monks with a staunch anti-Muslim agenda. According to a recent Guardian report, the remaining three laws would place limits on religious conversion, interfaith marriages, and adulterous entanglements.

Extremist Buddhist monks have repeatedly warned that Muslims, with their prolific birth rates, could eventually become the country’s majority.

Buddhism is practiced by at least eight out of 10 Burmese citizens, while Muslims make up just 10 percent of Myanmar’s 50 million residents.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.