Europe's Population Implosion

Much has been said and written about Europe's fertility rate, the white portion of which is below replacement levels. Here are some clues why this is happening. Compare those stories with an American one, and you can begin to get a sense of the differing values.

James Taranto addressed this in a way in January:

Medical statistics can be tricky: An excellent hospital may have a higher death rate than a mediocre one because of differences in the patient population, with the former treating much harder cases than the latter. That is what seems to have happened here: Kristof has alighted on a statistical artifact of American excellence and misconstrued it as a sign of America's shortcomings.

Perhaps America's much-ballyhooed religiosity is also her saving grace in this context, as, despite Roe v. Wade, we are more likely to try to save perinatal births instead of dumping the baby in the rubbish. Or, as James Tartanto points out in "The Roe Effect", perhaps our religiosity remains because of Roe v. Wade. Who knows?

It is entirely possible, of course, that the European women who discarded those babies did, in fact, endure much emotional anguish. But in the end, their decision was indubitably made easier by the more cavalier attitudes of their postmodern upbringing. I hope it wasn't quite so easy, of course. I'd hate to think that some woman decided, after carrying a baby nearly to term, that she'd rather not give up the single life, that she'd rather not give up being able to afford items of haute couture or dinners of haute cuisine. In short, I'd hate to think that women who want to live like the girls of Sex and the City would make a decision to bring a baby to term, then give it up all at the last minute just because it's "inconvenient". I'd also hate for Europeans to have to resort to the excuse that these women didn't know any better; wouldn't that take away their ability to mock the United States for our (admittedly) lack of good sex education?

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds and Chicago Boyz]

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