{"id":190898,"date":"2018-11-13T06:55:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T12:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=190898"},"modified":"2018-11-13T16:41:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T22:41:41","slug":"study-half-countries-baby-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/study-half-countries-baby-bust\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly half of countries have ‘insufficient children’ to maintain populations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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According to the BBC, new research published in The Lancet<\/a> — funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — shows something that researchers are calling a\u00a0“huge surprise.” That surprise is that the “fertility rate falls meant nearly half of countries were now facing a ‘baby bust’ – meaning there are insufficient children to maintain their population size.” Countries need a fertility replacement rate of 2.1 to have stable populations.<\/p>\n

The research tracks fertility rates from 1950 to 2017. The BBC notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. The fertility rate all but halved to 2.4 children per woman by last year.<\/em><\/p>\n

But that masks huge variation between nations.<\/em><\/p>\n

The fertility rate in Niger, west Africa, is 7.1, but in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus women are having one child, on average.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the UK, the rate is 1.7, similar to most Western European countries.<\/em><\/p>\n

While this demographic winter is very real — as countries in this “baby bust” will have a tendency to continue their population decline, unable to support their aging populations — the study notes that worldwide population is still increasing.<\/p>\n

Most of the higher fertility rates are in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia. This might explain why there has been much focus by pro-abortion groups in recent years on what one African pro-life leader calls a new “colonization” of African countries<\/a>, with organizations pushing abortion and contraception on these continents in an effort to curb population growth. Obianuju Ekeocha of Culture of Life Africa\u00a0recently reiterated<\/a> that education and clean food and water don’t seem to be the main concern of “the wealthiest and most prominent donors.” Instead,\u00a0<\/em>notes the Catholic Standard<\/a>, “population programs receive more donated funds than education, health care, or clean water. African countries receive about two billion donated condoms every year, which costs about $17 million….”<\/p>\n

\"world<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Is eugenics the real reason that European countries are pushing \u2018family planning\u2019 in Africa?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The article claims that “three key factors” have contributed to the baby bust:<\/p>\n