Kerby Anderson

Mollie Engelhart writes about “The Year America Stops Replacing Itself.” We were told that sometime in the future, perhaps around 2040, something profound would happen: Deaths in the US would outnumber births. Unfortunately, the date will be much closer than we expected. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that dismal demographic will arrive around 2030.

I have been talking about the declining birth rate for decades. The future is merely coming closer than some expected. We have seen what a drop in fertility looks like in Europe, and we are now seeing the impact in our country.

The reasons for a declining birth rate can be summarized with two factors: women are having children later (if at all) and they are also having fewer children. The first part is due to environmental factors and social choices. Our bodies are exposed to plastics, chemicals, and industrial compounds which affect both male and female infertility.

Women are also given the cultural message that they need to pursue a career and only think about family later. They can do so because of contraception and abortion.

Mollie Engelhart reminds us that “If every abortion were counted back in as a birth, the numbers shift in a meaningful way. The United States would move close to replacement-level fertility, but still likely fall just short of it.” She therefore concludes, “Abortion is part of the conversation, but it is not the whole of it.”

A growing population signals energy and expansion. A declining population looks like decay and stagnation. We bring children into the world with the hope that their world will be even better than ours. Many Americans no longer believe that.

This is where churches can provide hope. Pastors and Christian leaders need to speak about this dismal demographic.