It was Henry Kissinger who oversaw an infamous memo that turned population control into a weapon in the Cold War. Both his tactics and rationalization for the war on population are still in use today.
The statement came on the 50th anniversary of a 1972 report from the Rockefeller Commission on Population Growth and American Future requested by President Richard Nixon that called for the legalization of abortion and zero population growth.
When an important one of their own is attacked, Republican senators simply don't have the circle-the-wagons, defend-the-power and-the-agenda-above-all attitude of the Democrats.