U.S. Fertility Rates Collapse

Guest Post by Antonius Aquinas

The destructive demographic effects of the leftist social engineering schemes of the past century are now being felt in the latest federal data on the precipitous decline in U.S. birth rates.  A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control shows that the fertility rate among U.S. women has fallen to 1.62 births per woman in 2023, which is the lowest recorded rate since the government began keeping such statistics in the 1930s.

Buried in the media reports is the drop off in white women’s fertility rates, which fell some 3% from last year and stand less than the national average.  Asian women and white women have equal reproductive capacities.  The fertility rate is an estimate of the number of babies a woman would normally have in her lifetime.  A rate of 2.1 births per woman is needed for a generation to replace itself.

While this demographic trend has been in motion for quite some time, the explanation for the fall in reproduction by the news media and think tanks devoted to the subject have largely missed the mark.

In its coverage of the story, The Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Calfas and Anthony DeBarros cited such factors as “women establishing fulfilling careers,” and that they have more access to contraception.*  The most fertile child-bearing group – young women – are putting off motherhood because they are uncertain about the future and are “spending more of their income on homeownership, student debt and child care.”

The reasons that The Journal and other commentators give to explain the decline in birth rates are the consequences of what took place in America and the Western world decades ago.  Leftists had always wanted to break down and corrupt the traditional family.  A splintered and dysfunctional family structure would be less likely to act as bulwark against its agenda.

One of the ways to accomplish this was to get women out of the household and into the labor market, as working and career women would have fewer opportunities to have children.

The feminist movement was more than just the attainment of “equal rights” for women.  Its main objective was to lead women out of the home and away from their traditional roles as mothers and homemakers.  The record drop in birth rates demonstrates how well this plan has been accomplished.

Besides the disruptive impact on family life and its size, working women are also an indication (and a much better one than government statistics) that living standards have fallen over the generations despite what the financial press has maintained about the economy.  Some 50 to 60 years ago most women did not work, one income could sustain a family and even larger families at that.

Now, due to the dramatic increase in the cost of living – mostly due to the Federal Reserve’s inflationary monetary policies, D.C.’s unbridled lust of spending, and massive corporate bailouts and subsidies – real incomes have fallen.  For most couples, it takes two full-time jobs to sustain a household which today is a lot smaller than earlier generations.

While the financial argument has merit, the most important factor has been the establishment’s relentless push to justify and make appealing the idea of working women.  This arrangement has led to countless conflicts between the sexes in and out of the workplace.

Of course, this is not to say that women should be prohibited from the labor market or do so on a part-time, informal basis.  Some, out of tragic circumstances, need to work or some may not be cut out for motherhood, but this should be the exception to the norm.

While anti-immigration voices have rightly focused on the cultural and political altering impact of mass illegal immigration, there has been less emphasis on the fundamental change of women’s role in society.  Such neglect is probably due to a reluctance to take a moral position and appear chauvinistic or misogynistic.  A healthy birth-rate model could offset the influx of unwanted immigrants.

Recently, Elon Musk wrote that “Any nation with a birth rate below replacement will eventually cease to exist.”  When confused New World Order types like Musk recognize the seriousness of population collapse, it is time to worry.  Yet, Musk and others do not understand the essence of the problem.

Without a reordering of society to its natural state and restoring the family as a fruitful and nurturing institution for child rearing, a demographic nightmare is in store for America and the Western world.

*Jennifer Calfas & Anthony DeBarros, “Fertility Rate Falls to a Record Low Amid Social Shifts,” The Wall Street Journal, 25 April 2024, pp. A1-A2.

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