The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Psalm 90:10 – English Standard Version (ESV)
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth….”
Genesis 1:28 – ESV
Low birth rate societies are usually not very healthy societies. Several Asian countries, Japan, South Korea and China are facing a real crisis today. They don’t have enough young people to support their aging populations.
Virginia Postrel, has written a substack article which highlights the current problem in Japan and how it might foreshadow what’s coming for the United States. Postrel, a childless baby boomer, doesn’t have a solution, but she’s definitely sounding the alarm.
In January, prime minister Fumio Kishida told legislators that the country is “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions” because of its falling birth rate.
But even if the government succeeds in goosing the birth rate, the effects will be felt decades from now. Japan has an immediate problem that dates back to policies adopted in 1948. People over 75 now make up 15 percent of the population, and they don’t have a lot of kids to take care of them. Japan’s postwar baby boom lasted only about two years. By contrast, the U.S. experienced high birth rates from 1946 to 1964.
In 1948, the Diet passed the Eugenic Protection Law. It made abortions legal and cheap, about $10. “Critics assert that it is easier for a woman to avoid an unwanted child in this way than to have her tonsils removed,” The New York Times reported in 1964. “One result of the practice has been the virtual elimination of illegitimate births.”
The bill also promoted contraception, establishing “eugenic protection consultation offices” throughout the country. They provided marriage counseling and gave couples “guidance in adequate methods of contraception.” Local governments trained midwives and nurses to encourage family planning. Employers, unions, and nonprofits pushed the idea of smaller families and helped spread information about how to achieve them.
FULL STORY
As we are seeing, the normalization of this kind of “family planning” whether it be encouraged by much Feminist Theory, all Queer Theory, or Corporatism, will have negative downstream consequences.
God made us male and female for many joy filled reasons. The calling to be fruitful and multiply into caring God-like families is one.
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Celebrate God’s Good Bi-Natured Creation