The international abortion lobby has pushed the myth of overpopulation for decades. Population planners have used bad math to claim falsely that ending lives in the womb saves money. In recent years, abortion radicals have used the environmental movement as a cover to push ending preborn lives as a solution to the supposed climate crisis. These abortion activists, funded by abortion businesses and their political allies, continue to spread these lies despite the growing body of evidence that the world will face a population crisis due to a decline in the number of babies born not due to overpopulation.
A recent study published in the Lancet predicts that the decline in population could be much more severe than many people realize. Researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation analyzed global fertility trends and published findings that should put to rest the notion of overpopulation. According to the study, by the end of the century almost every country could see shrinking populations.
Researchers noted that in 1950, women had an average of 4.7 children over the course of their lifetime. By 2017, women had an average of 2.4 children in their lifetime. Continued decline could mean that by 2100 the number could fall below 1.7, well below the 2.1 necessary for population replacement.
Many countries have already had notable declines in fertility. Nations, including Spain and Japan, already have fertility rates at historic lows. The recent study predicts that 23 countries will see their populations cut in half by 2100. Many countries will also see as many people turning 80 as are being born in a year.
This may not seem concerning to the casual observer, but the implications are significant and far-ranging. “That’s a pretty big thing; most of the world is transitioning into natural population decline,” researcher Christopher Murray told the BBC. He explained, “I think it’s incredibly hard to think this through and recognise how big a thing this is; it’s extraordinary, we’ll have to reorganise societies.”
Murray addressed the abortion activists’ dream that declining population will make the world a better place. He said, “That would be true except for the inverted age structure (more old people than young people) and all the uniformly negative consequences of an inverted age structure.” Speaking candidly as a father, Murray added, “It will create enormous social change. It makes me worried because I have an eight-year-old daughter and I wonder what the world will be like.”
Although this study in the Lancet has caught attention and garnered headlines about “jaw-dropping” decline in population, the information is not news. The Population Research Institute has for years been raising awareness about the trend toward shrinking population and the implications this will have for society. For years, scientists have been predicting that, far from the disastrous overpopulation with which certain political factions have tried to fearmonger, the world will see population decline, first slowly and then precipitously. The effects of such a shrinking population on economic systems as working-aged adults struggle to care for an aging population will be tremendous.
Beyond the scientific reality of the impending population decline and the grim economic outcomes, there is a human story behind these numbers. Decades of legalized killing of the preborn has created a culture in which the sanctity of human Life is not recognized. The preborn child is viewed as a choice, expendable and unworthy of the immutable Right to Life. In such a culture, children are wrongly seen as parasites using resources and contributing nothing. This is the culture of death. In order to confront the difficult demographic challenges facing our nation and the world, we must return to a Culture of Life in which each person is valued as the unique and unrepeatable individual he or she is, fully worthy of Life.