Canadian National Post Newspaper First to Warn of Impending Population Collapse
Worldwide Fertility Decline
United Nations Supports China's Population Program with Another $27 Million over 5 years
Philippines Legislature Attempting to Impose Two-Children-Only Policy
China: No Plans to Relax One-Child Rule
500,000 Girls Aborted Per Year in India new Study Finds
IF YOU ARE WONDERING WHY the USA seems so involved in the population control of many Third World nations, read the National Security Study Memorandum, NSSM-200: www.hli.org/nssm-200.pdf, and a 2004 retrospective on the memo: www.hli.org/Kissinger%20Report%202004.pdf.
CANADIAN NATIONAL POST FIRST TO WARN OF IMPENDING POPULATION COLLAPSE. It is publishing a four part series on the fertility crisis. In part one, a front-page feature titled A childless culture, Anne Marie Owens warns of a future “where senior citizens drastically outnumber babies, schools will be replaced by old-age homes, neighbourhoods of single-family dwellings will make way for smaller condos and townhouses, and playgrounds will become disused relics of the past.”
“A dramatic decline in fertility in recent decades, combined with an ageing population, has the potential to transform every aspect of Canadian society, from schools and housing to social attitudes toward family,” warns Owens. “The sound of children's chattering voices, once common, will be rarely heard.”
“Baby-making may come to be regarded no longer as the private prerogative of consenting adults, and more an act of national duty,” Owens adds. “This is what a childless Canada would look like. But it is not the science-fiction vision of a far-off future. In less than a decade, seniors will outnumber children in Canada; in just 15 years, deaths may outnumber births.”
It is rare for mainstream sources to acknowledge the demographic nightmare looming on our horizon. Even rarer is the proposal that Canadian parents be encouraged to have more children.
Although Owens acknowledges that immigration is unlikely to remedy the decline, she reiterates the tired excuse that encouraging childbirth is a “politically incorrect” solution, as claimed by demographer Rod Beaujot. He states that “If you start encouraging childbearing, you’re meddling in people’s lives.”
To her credit, Owens adds the perspective of McGill University professor Avi Friedman, who maintains that the only solution is monetary incentives to parents to encourage childbirth. Quebec, incidentally, is the only province so far that has seen the writing on the wall and done just that. It has offered baby bonuses of $500 for the first child, $1,000 for the second and $7,500 for the third and for each subsequent child, which helped to bolster the birthrate.
However, European nations that have tried to turn around their plummeting birthrates have found financial incentives produce only short term results. A 2004 Family Research Council report on the total failure of numerous European strategies to generate at least a replacement birth rate level points especially to deeply ingrained social and cultural conditions, including rejection of religion, that go more to the heart of the problem.
Read the full on line version of the column:
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=13e220f0-b53a-4a38-bca9-66481d9b8f89
The Failure of European Family Policy
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PL04L01
Related coverage:
Quebec to experience most rapid demographic decline of all industrialized countries
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05102501.html
Population Implosion Drives Quebec To Offer Child-Birth Incentives
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/mar/03031702.html
No Mention of Most Obvious Solution to Canadian Fertility Decline in Report Urging Change to Immigration Policy
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/aug/04081005.html
[Vanderheyden, 20Feb06 LifeSiteNews.com]
WORLDWIDE FERTILITY DECLINE (replacement rate = 2.1 children per woman):
Selected European Fertility Rates 2005 Non-European Change in Fertility Rate
Hungary 1.11 1965 2005
Greece 1.11 Africa 6.8 4.7
Bulgaria 1.10 Asia 5.7 2.3
Belarus 1.10 South America 5.4 2.0
Lithuania 1.10 N. America 2.0 2.1
Russia 1.05 Caribbean 5.0 2.4
Bosnia 1.05
Slovenia 1.02 Notes:
Ukraine 1.00 Fertility rate = number of children per woman
Spain 0.95 A society needs a fertility rate of 2.1 per woman
Latvia 0.95 in order to maintain replacement population
Armenia 0.70
[HLI.org]
UN SUPPORTS CHINA'S POPULATION PROGRAM WITH ANOTHER $27 MILLION OVER 5 YEARS: [exec brd, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)] approved the 6th UNFPA program of assistance to China.
Last September, the United States denied, for the fourth straight year, funding to the UN agency over its support of China's coercive population program. US law prohibits the country from contributing to any organization that participates in coercive abortion – a practice widely acknowledged in Communist-ruled China.
Independent investigations have found evidence of UNFPA's collusion in the coercive Chinese program.
A recent Amnesty International report [http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/may/05052706.html] notes that forced abortion, forced sterilization and economic penalties are still a feature of China's one-child policy.
Nevertheless, the 10 European countries that provide most of UNFPA's funding: the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany praised the UN agency's support for China and praised the UNFPA funding of China's population program.
In a statement on their behalf by the United Kingdom, the countries declared: "unequivocally…in our view, UNFPA's activities in China, as in the rest of the world, are in strict conformity with the unanimously adopted Programme of Action of the ICPD, and play a key role in supporting our common endeavour, the promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms."
Joseph D'Agostino, spokesman for the Population Research Institute – the organization which first exposed the horrors of China's coercive population program:"These governments make noises about human rights but they obviously don't care about them because there is no doubt UNFPA supports China's coercive population program which includes forced abortion and sterilization. In some cases women are imprisoned and fined and their husbands are subjected to the same treatment. The fact that Western governments continue, even if indirectly, to fund China's coercive program, is unbelievable." D'Agostino noted that the news about China's forced abortions is wide-spread and was as recently as 9/05 reported on in Time magazine. [LifeSiteNews, 2Feb06, John-Henry Westen]
PHILIPPINES LEGISLATURE ATTEMPTING TO IMPOSE TWO CHILDREN-ONLY POLICY. A bill was introduced 19Dec05 to limit families. The bill before the Philippines legislature would limit federal assistance for education to only those families who complied with the law. The Philippines parliament will vote January 16 on a controversial bill proposing the limit.
Eileen Macapanas Cosby [Exec Dir, Filipino Family Fund] expressed outrage: "This is social engineering at its worst. The nearly 3 million Filipino Americans with aunts, uncles, cousins and friends back in the Philippines have a stake in this radical legislation. If passed, it would have dreadful consequences on the country, including imprisoning our family and friends for their beliefs. The legislation is coercive, violates religious liberty, and is completely contrary to Filipino values.”
HB 3773 “The Responsible Parenting and Population Control Act of 2005” would:
put in place a comprehensive national policy “that discriminates against families with more than two children.” Two child families shall have preference in the grant of scholarships for higher education.
define "reproductive health care" as "availability and access to a full range of methods, techniques, and services that contribute to reproductive and sexual health and well-being” … [including contraceptive information and abortifacient birth prevention.]
establish mandatory sex education from grades 5-12, with topics to include "reproductive health and sexual rights," "sexual identity," and "gender roles." Moreover, the bill requires all employers to provide free of charge, "reproductive health care services and devices to the workers." The bill considers such services to include voluntary sterilization.
The bill also prohibits persons "to act from conscience" with the provision allowing up to 6 months imprisonment for "any health care service provider who shall … refuse to perform voluntary sterilization and ligation" and for "any public official … who shall prohibit or intentionally restrict” the provision of services outlined in the bill.
The bill has very coercive elements and religious liberty violations, according to Cosby. "Where did this come from? These are Western ideas, not Filipino, and they do not protect the dignity of the Filipino women. In fact, they pave the way for the kind of human rights nightmare that is already in China, with its coercive sterilization and contraception practices. The Philippine version is really just ‘China-light.’ This is not a policy growing from Filipino values, it is social engineering from the outside being impos
ed on the Philippine people.”
In the declassified 1974 US government document, National Security Study Memorandum 200, the Philippines was included in a list of countries whose population growth and consequent growth in prosperity would threaten US security and overseas economic interests. The solution recommended was the imposition of radical population control measures through the United Nations aid programmes.
Dr. Brian Scharneccia [President, Int'l Solidarity and Human Rights Institute, ISHRI] is also concerned. “H.B. 3773 does not reflect the indigenous cultural and religious values of the population of the Philippines. Rather, it promotes the special interests of developed nations to maintain the Philippines. This is a direct attack on genuine human rights and the solidarity that must be maintained amongst civilized nations.”
In a statement released last February, Capalla asked the government to examine its own policies to eradicate poverty before "attacking the sanctity of every Filipino family's home. The 'two-child policy' goes against our constitutional provision that safeguards the welfare of every family. It is discriminatory and penalizes the poor who have greater need for government assistance.”
Maerose Bacani [member, Filipino Family Fund] also expressed outrage at the proposed legislation: Filipino American professionals are mobilizing grass-roots efforts of pro-life leaders on the ground in the U.S. and the Philippines to build opposition to the social engineering bill. Filipino Family Fund is sponsoring an on-line petition drive, leadership development programs, youth educational programs and democracy initiatives in the Philippines from contributions made by Americans who care.
The bill was introduced Monday, 12December05, and is now in its second reading in the Philippine legislature. The next step is further debate, then a vote anticipated 16 January. [Eileen Macapanas Cosby [email protected], www.FilipinoFamilyFund.org; N Valko, RN, 21Dec05]
500,000 GIRLS ABORTED PER YEAR IN INDIA, NEW STUDY FINDS. A study published in the leading British Medical Journal, the Lancet, says sex-targeted abortion is accountable for the deaths of up to half a million girl babies a year and is creating in India, as in China, a severe demographic imbalance in the population.
The study examined data from 134,000 births in 1997 among 6 million people living in 1.1 million households in India. The researchers found that in 1997, between 590,000 and 740,000 girls were aborted in India.
In 2001, the data showed that for every 1,000 male babies born in India, there were just 933 girls. The imbalance is even more pronounced in second births where the preceding children are girls; in those cases, the ratio of girls to boys in second births was 759 to 1,000. When two preceding children were both girls, the numbers fell to 719 girls to 1,000 boys.
The study’s authors, Prabhat Jha of St. Michael's Hospital at the University of Toronto and Rajesh Kumar of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Research in Chandigarh, India, cited the availability of ultrasound which has made it easier for women to target girls earlier in pregnancy.
“If this practice has been common for most of the past two decades since access to ultrasound became widespread, then a figure of 10 million missing female births would not be unreasonable,” Jha wrote.
Financial pressure is a significant factor in sex-selective abortion in India where girls require substantial dowries for marriage. Professor Shirish Sheth of Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai wrote in the Lancet, “Daughters are regarded as a liability. Because she will eventually belong to the family of her future husband, expenditure on a daughter will benefit others. In some communities where the custom of dowry prevails, the cost of her dowry could be phenomenal.”
The study also found that women with higher education were more than twice as likely as women with less formal education to abort a second child if she is a girl. This finding is in accord with abortion rates in the US, Canada and Britain where acceptance of abortion is more prevalent among professionals and those with higher levels of formal education.
The media’s reaction to the study has demonstrated the rift that was waiting to open up between the abortion-on-demand orthodoxy of most western feminists and the need to protect women from violence and prejudice.
Writing for the CBC’s Online opinion page, Viewpoint, Jeremy Copeland decries the use of sex-selection to kill girls. Copeland writes, “As India strives to become a developed country, it seems unable to let go of its old prejudices.”
Copeland declines to mention, however, that almost every “developed country” in the world has adopted the radical feminist doctrine of abortion on demand. Canada and India are equally “developed” in having few or no restrictions on abortion and not requiring women to give any reason. The CBC, along with most Canadian media, has historically been in full support of the central feminist principle that children who create a financial burden or restrict the career opportunities of women can be aborted at will.
Read Copeland’s editorial:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_copeland/20040512.html
[9Jan06, LifeSiteNews.com, by Hilary White, London]
CHINA: NO PLANS TO RELAX ONE-CHILD RULE. China will continue to enforce the rule restricting families to only one child, a senior official said on Friday in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
Zhang Weiqing, mini
ster of the State Commission of Population and Family Planning, said the one-child rule would be strictly enforced in the nation’s 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10). Zhang said State policy intends to maintain and stabilize the current low-level birth rate on a long-term basis. (People’s Daily)
At a national conference on family planning, he refuted recent rumors suggesting that China would loosen the present policy and allow all couples to have a second child.
The Shanghai-based Dongfang Morning Post had earlier reported on rumors that families in the city would be allowed to have a second child by 2016.
The State Council, the central government, Zhang said, must carry out any adjustment of the birth policy and local governments had no rights to make changes.
Mainland China currently has nearly 1.3 billion people. The aim of the family planning initiative is to control the number to within 1.37 billion before the end of 2010, Zhang said.
Under the present rate of birth, China’s population, which is the largest in the world, is expected to reach 1.37 billion by 2010, 1.46 billion by 2020 and 1.5 billion by 2033.
China’s dark history of forcible abortion and sterilization, atrocities committed in the ongoing effort to maintain a low birth rate, continues unchecked. Amnesty International’s 2005 report on China stated:
“Severe violations against women and girls continued to be reported as a result of the enforcement of the family planning policy, including forced abortions and sterilizations. In July the authorities publicly reinforced a ban on the selective abortion of female foetuses in an attempt to reverse a growing gap in the boy-girl birth ratio.”
In October 2005 LifeSiteNews reported on the brutal crackdown in the eastern province of Shandong, where more than 120,000 people were forced to undergo abortions and sterilizations.
Forced Abortion Continues in China at Alarming Rate says Latest Report
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05102602.html
To view Amnesty International’s report on China, see:
http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/chn-summary-eng
[9Jan06, LifeSiteNews.com, by Gudrun Schultz, Beijing, China]
CANADA IN POPULATION CRISIS: SENIORS TO OUTNUMBER CHILDREN IN DECADE, according to new population projections released by the official government statistical organization.
In all growth scenarios considered for the study, Statistics Canada reports that seniors aged 65+ would become more numerous than children aged less than 15 around the year 2015. A situation the report describes as "an unprecedented situation in Canada."
By 2031, the number of people aged 65 and over would range between 8.9 million and 9.4 million, depending on the scenario selected, while the number of children would range between 4.8 million and 6.6 million.
While Canada's population is currently younger than the populations of most of the G8 countries, it is expected to age more rapidly in the coming years. This has been a direct result of the pronounced baby boom following the Second World War and the rapid decline in fertility that followed with the legalization and promotion of contraception and abortion and on-going, relentless implementation of Canadian government anti-family policies.
The findings of the research present a nightmare scenario for Canadian old age security and health care as the workforce shrinks and the percentage of retired Canadians balloons.
The projections show that population ageing, which has already begun, would accelerate in 2011 when the first baby-boom cohort (born in 1946) reaches the age of 65. This rapid ageing is projected to last until 2031, when seniors would account for between 23% and 25% of the total population.
In every projection scenario, the median age of Canada's population would continue to rise. The current median age of the population is 39, that is, half the population is older and half younger. By 2031, it would reach between 43 and 46. In 2056, it would be 45-50.
In addition, the proportion of older seniors, people aged 80 years and over, would increase sharply in every projection scenario. By 2056, an estimated 1 out of 10 Canadians would be 80 years or over, compared with around 1 in 30 in 2005. The report stresses "immigration alone cannot reverse this ageing trend."
However, the prospect of encouraging Canadians to have more children and assisting families is typically nowhere mentioned in the report.
In every projection scenario, the proportion of the working-age population, that is the population aged 15 to 64, would decline steadily in the 2010s and 2020s.
Currently, the working-age population represents 70% of the total population. By the beginning of the 2030s, it would decline to 62%, then level off at about 60%. In 2005, for every 100 working-age people, there were 44 children and seniors. According to the low-growth scenario, it would start decreasing in 2017.
In all the scenarios considered, natural increase would eventually become negative, that is, there would be more deaths than births. This would occur in 2020 under the low-growth scenario, in 2030 under the medium-growth scenario, and in 2046 under the high-growth scenario.
As a result, international net migration would become the country's only source of population growth. Immigration levels contribute heavily to the projected population growth at the national level, as the fertility rate is assumed to remain below the replacement level in all scenarios, a situation observed since the 1970s. [LifeSiteNews.com, 15Dec05]
IF YOU ARE WONDERING WHY the USA seems so involved in population control of many Third World nations, read the National Security Study Memorandum, NSSM-200: www.hli.org/nssm-200.pdf, and a 2004 retrospective on the memo: www.hli.org/Kissinger%20Report%202004.pdf.