In This Issue:
- PRI in the Media
- Greatest Threat to America
- Deepening Depopulation
- Two-Child Policy in India
- Two Child Limits in the UK
- Baltimore’s Baby Bonus
- Baby Bust Consequences
- People Aren’t the Problem
- Communist China
- CCP Supports Another Genocide
- Birth Tourism Evolves
- UN Misdeeds
- New Population Predictions
- Pro-Life Around the World
- Life Safe in Poland
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- Population Control in the US
- Overturn Bubble Zones
- Good News
- A Novena for Family
PRI has started a new Instagram account (@population_research_institute), follow us to add reliable pro-life news and research to your social media feed!
PRI in the Media
Greatest Threat to America: In light of the recent announcement of the Republican National Committee’s stance on abortion, PRI President Steven Mosher reminds us that radical pro-abortion politicians are the real threat to America’s existence. The Republican party’s platform has decided to leave it to the states to pass laws protecting life and liberty. Many pro-life leaders, including Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List, support this move, which upholds the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Instead of focusing on potential internal division within the pro-life movement, we need to be prepared to stand against those who favor abortion under any and all circumstances. The Democratic party is determined to crush the pro-life movement and allow mid-term and full-term abortions. Democrats seek to deprive the unborn of life, just as they seek to deprive the majority of Americans of liberty and ultimately happiness.
Deepening Depopulation
Two-Child Policy in India: A two-child policy may soon be coming to India. An NGO called the Jansankya Samadhan Foundation (JSF) has been calling for a two-child policy across India for years. This year, on World Population Day (July 11), the JSF arranged an event where its president renewed this call once again. The JSF wants the introduction of a strict system of population control that limits couples to two children, with punishments for violators including up to 10 years in jail and/or the termination of government positions. For any “surplus children” born, the JSF recommends the non-issuance of birth certificates. The organization has already submitted a memorandum to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to accept the proposed two-child policy legislation.
“The population controllers never give up,” says Mr. Mosher. “Foreign-funded NGOs have been calling for India to adopt a two-child policy for years. But this latest call is particularly nonsensical. The country’s 2020 National Family Health Survey showed that India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is now below 2.0 children per woman. This is well below the 2.1 children needed to maintain a stable population.”
Two Child Limits in the UK: The U.K. Labour Party’s “two-child benefit cap” is back in the spotlight. This controversial policy prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third child, with a few exemptions. Withholding these benefits, which help offset the costs of having and raising children, contributes to poverty in larger families. This benefit cap is most likely also a contributor to the below replacement fertility rate in the U.K. as couples struggle to afford more than one or two children. As of April 2024, 450,000 families were negatively affected by this benefit cap. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has stated that this policy will not change until there is an increase in economic growth.
Baltimore’s Baby Bonus: The City of Baltimore is planning to include a measure on ballots this November that would grant new parents a “baby bonus.” If passed, parents would receive a $1000 stipend upon the birth of their child. This measure is intended to address the city’s high rates of childhood poverty without raising taxes. This move is not unique to Baltimore but is modeled after a similar system in Flint, Michigan, which provides $1,500 to women around the middle of their pregnancy and an additional $500 per month for the first year after giving birth. This bonus is also similar to efforts around the world, especially in Europe, designed to incentivize couples to have more children and raise fertility rates.
Baby Bust Consequences: The U.S. baby bust has had some consequences in rural America. Hospitals across the country are shutting down their labor and delivery (L&D) units as fewer children are born nationwide. For example, 41 hospitals in Iowa have closed their L&D units since the year 2000. In some Iowa counties, annual numbers of births have fallen by three-quarters since the height of the baby boom in the 1950s and ’60s. But it’s not just Iowa. Similar trends are being seen nationwide, as hospitals struggle to maintain staff and facilities to safely handle the falling numbers of births. Over half of rural U.S. hospitals now lack L&D services.
People Aren’t the Problem: In recognition of World Population Day on July 11th, Pope Francis recognized publicly that the world’s problem is not the number of babies being born. He shared the following on X: “Our world’s problem is not the number of children born into it. The problem is selfishness, consumerism and individualism, which make people satiated, lonely and unhappy.”
“I agree with Pope Francis that our problem is not too many children,” says Mr. Mosher. “Our problem is actually too few. We need to encourage marriage and childbearing by sheltering young couples from the exorbitant taxes that the welfare state imposes on them. It is government interference, not selfishness and individualism (both of which are actually promoted by government programs that subsidize individuals and penalize families) that is the chief cause of declining birth rates.”
Communist China
CCP Supports Another Genocide: Leaders and governments have called the Chinese Communist Party out for its persecution and genocide of the Uyghurs. But that isn’t the only genocide that the CCP has been recently involved with. China has also been associated with the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar/Burma. The Myanmar government and the CCP are strategic allies, as Beijing sees Myanmar as its gateway to the Indian Ocean and has significantly invested in Myanmar’s infrastructure projects. Due to this partnership, China has supported and enabled the Myanmar military’s “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya. This crackdown involves mass killings, mass rape, and the destruction of villages.
Birth Tourism Evolves: According to a new report from The Heritage Foundation, Chinese “birth tourism” in the U.S. has a new look. For decades, some Chinese couples have traveled to the United States in order to give birth there. This granted their babies dual citizenship. However, now we are seeing the rise of Chinese nationals paying to “rent a womb” in an American surrogate in order to have a child created, carried, and birthed in the U.S. for the same purpose. Through a suspect interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, these children gain and maintain the full rights of American citizenship. Though this practice is banned in several other countries, such cross-border surrogacy for hire is not regulated at the national level in the United States. To make matters worse, about half of the states openly encourage this industry.
“We need to end so-called ‘birthright’ citizenship,” says Mr. Mosher. “This is a misreading of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that needs to be corrected by the Supreme Court. Wealthy Communist Party officials are ‘renting the wombs of American women’ to ‘buy’ American citizenship for a baby.”
UN Misdeeds
New Population Predictions: The United Nations has released new predictions for the world’s population, and it’s going to fall sooner than expected. According to the World Population Prospects 2024, the global population reached nearly 8.2 billion by mid-2024. It may continue to grow by another two billion over the next 60 years, potentially peaking at around 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s. After that, if not sooner, the population will fall to 10.2 billion, which is 700 million lower than expected a decade ago. The UN is finally seeing that the world is not facing unchecked, exponential population growth. Instead, most of the world is facing depopulation, as every industrialized nation now has a fertility rate below replacement. Once the world’s population starts to fall, it is unlikely to recover. The world will never reach 11 billion human beings, and it’s possible that we won’t reach 10 billion either, if population predictions continue to change and fall.
“Once again, the UN grossly exaggerates future population growth, a game it has been playing for decades now,” says Mr. Mosher. “The real numbers are likely to be a billion or so lower as the bottom falls out of birth rates worldwide. But since that would be bad for fundraising, they nudge the numbers upward.”
Pro-Life Around the World
Life Safe in Poland: The lower house of Poland’s parliament has narrowly rejected a bill aimed at liberalizing the country’s abortion laws by a vote of 218-215. The proposal aimed to eliminate penalties for abortion providers, including providers of the abortion pill and doctors performing early-term or fetal anomaly-related abortions. In 2021, Poland passed a ban on almost all abortions with exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s health or life is endangered. However, last year, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition party previously promised to legalize abortions up to 12 weeks. Tusk—and his ministers of the government—are the reason that this pro-abortion bill, along with three others, were put before parliament.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
Population Control in the US: A recent article in TIME has exposed the “soft sterilization” of minority women in the United States. Doctors in the U.S. coerce and pressure women of color and low-income women into using long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC). Doctors will target these women immediately after they’ve given birth, while they are still recovering or, in some cases, medicated. Once placed, doctors will refuse to remove LARCs, some of which are designed to function for up to ten years. This abuse of American women is supported by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Medicaid system, with representatives from both institutions defending this practice.
Overturn “Bubble Zones”: Pro-life advocates from Coalition Life have petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a decision permitting “bubble zones” around abortion facilities. These “bubble zones” restrict pro-life individuals and groups from providing compassionate alternatives to abortion outside of abortuaries. In March 2024, Coalition Life started this battle to end “bubble zones” in Carbondale, IL. Now, a federal appeals court has cleared the path for the pro-life organization to petition the Supreme Court to overturn the case that upholds the constitutionality of “bubble zones,” Hill vs. Colorado. If successful, pro-life organizations in Illinois, Colorado, and other states will be able to reach abortion-minded women before they go through with the procedure. Unborn lives will be saved and vulnerable women will be spared the trauma of abortion.
Good News
A Novena for Family: At this time in history when the institutions of marriage and family are under severe attack, we can rely on the intercession of the saints to protect our own families. Aleteia has provided the prayers for a novena to Saints Louis and Zelie Martin. Sts. Louis and Zelie are the patron saints of marriage and parenting. Prayer can provide a spiritual reset for family life. As Aleteia states, “The Holy Spirit is eager to build in our homes a Domestic Church that honors Him and leads to the happy holiness of each of the members of the family.” Saints Louis and Zelie, pray for us!
Quote of the Week
“When we had our children, our ideas changed somewhat. We lived only for them. They were all our happiness and we never found any except in them. In short, nothing was too difficult and the world was no longer a burden for us. For me, our children were a great compensation, so I wanted to have a lot of them in order to raise them for Heaven.”
~ St. Zelie Martin, source
