US projected population decline and anti-abortion push/rhetoric. Is it really related to religiosity or is it related to desire to maintain birth rates and US global power while being able to continue to demonize immigration, especially by POC, and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments.
Is the anti-abortion/anti-choice narrative a global power-play with strong racist overtones?
Where are the studies on the anti-abortion faction, the alarmists concerned about declining US birth rates, and the anti-immigration factions? It seems to me the root cause of all three concerns boil down to the same concern, US geopolitical supremacy.
Birth rates are falling world-wide in industrialized nations. WHO names abortion access a human right but how long will that last? Globally, right wing ideologies and nationalism are rising. State control is rising. The US seems to be in a shadow war of population management. Allow decreased birth rates and unchecked immigration in other countries but severely curtail abortion access and immigration here.
I’ve heard the argument that abortion access is inherently racist. I believe it is but not entirely the way we’ve been taught. Were POC supposed to have more abortions than whites? Were bans instituted through the 1900's intended to force white women to have children?
Falling birth rates come with dire warnings of economic collapse, civilization-killing changes to society, and irreversible changes to the status quo. Governments have a strong incentive to ensure geopolitical strength. One of the easiest, maybe the only, way to do that is to ensure a larger population than their competitors. Limiting access to abortion is only the first step. Limiting or eliminating access to birth control is next. Limiting rights for openly LGTBQ+ people will follow. Same sex couples do not reproduce. What happens after that? Limiting employment opportunities for women? My statements and question may be hyperbole but it is the natural extension of the idea to increase birth rates.
The developed world’s emphasis on autonomy and equality, education and women in the workforce, these ideologies reinforce women choosing smaller families. Put simply, we have choices and many choose to limit the number of children or have none at all. The eventuality is to remove choices, AKA severely limiting access to abortion, birth control, and work outside the home. The limits on choices has already begun. How far will we allow those limits to go?
Let’s look at the other side of the equation. If you believe global population is too large and humans are having an outsized impact on weather, climate change, pollution, and destroying the Earth then falling birth rates are a boon. When people believe that human suffering, starvation, disease, poverty, are the result of overpopulation then declining birth rates are a move in the right direction. How do we encourage even more or faster depopulation? Open access to abortion, birth control, education, work, and choice is the answer. Increased freedoms, increased choices, increased regulations on how and where to build, types of industry, and food production and distribution would be in line with global depopulation goals. Did you read that? Increased freedoms and increased regulation in the same sentence. This side of the argument is largely pessimistic about humanity and sees us as a scourge upon the earth. Many are nihilistic about our place on the planet, full of dire warnings of ecologic and climate catastrophes resulting in war, starvation, and irreversible changes to the status quo.
In actuality, both sides of the argument promise improved outcomes for humanity. One side argues that maintaining or growing the population will do what it has always done, increase prosperity for most. The other side argues that decreasing the population will increase resources for the smaller population through a cleaner environment and more food and housing for everyone. I don’t believe either side is wholly correct. Right now it’s a fight for supremacy. We are still cavemen fighting over limited resources and the best way to use them. We always will be; we are human.
My original question is where are the studies on the interconnectedness of abortion access policies, immigration policies, and falling birth rates. I haven’t seen anyone take these seemingly disparate issues and correlate them. We have so much data. I don’t even know where to begin to do the research myself.
I have provided a link to an article outlining some possibilities. Notably, it nearly ignores the US, getting a few sentences and not touching restrictive abortion policies taking hold.
