REALity Volume XXXVI, Issue 12, December, 2017
Canada has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. According to Statistics Canada, the Canadian birth rate is 1.6 births per woman of reproductive age. Canada, however, needs a birth rate of 2.1 births to replace its population. In the future Canada won’t have the taxpayers to pay for our government programs such as Canada Child Benefits and pensions.
There are many reasons for a low birth rate, including complex social considerations, economic indicators linked to the GDP, income, unemployment, consumer confidence, and the fact that abortion plays a role in population control. Abortion is not merely a private matter, it is more efficient in curbing population than an epidemic of cholera.
Russia is an example of declining population. According to the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia lost 26.6 million people in World War II. In 1920, Communist Russia passed legislation for abortion on demand which led to the highest rate of abortion in the world. Officially, there are over one million abortions each year in Russia. This has created a demographic crisis for that country. Consequently, Russia passed a restrictive abortion law in 2012 for the first time since the fall of the communist state. Pregnancy facilities were also established in major centres and generous funding provided pregnant women (single and married), both prior to and subsequent to giving birth. The Russian government takes the decrease of abortion so seriously that it has appointed as President of the pro-life movement in Russia, Svetlana Medvedeva, wife of Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev.
On April 6, 2016, the head of the Russian Health Ministry, Veronika Skvortsova, reported that the number of abortions in the country had decreased by 8% in 2015 and, compared to 2011, had decreased by 24.5%.
The US is also experiencing an all-time low birth rate. In 2015 it had 1.84 births per woman. What is of particular concern is that the African-American population in the US is approximately 13%, but about 35.6% of abortions performed in the US are on black women. Elective abortion is the number one cause of death among black Americans, higher than other causes combined (See article in November REALity “Abortion and Racism” page ___).
In April 2017 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau donated $650 million Canadian dollars to assist in facilitating abortions in Africa, even though abortion is contrary to African law and culture.
The Prime Minister and his office recently met with Canada’s Black community leaders on priority issues. Is Prime Minister Trudeau, in the name of equality, planning to offer Canadian Black women priority access to abortion just like he has proposed for Black women in Africa, so that there will be a proportional increase in abortion for Black women in Canada?
A world-wide petition opposing this donation for abortions in Africa was distributed by the World Congress of Families (WCF) and REAL Women of Canada. It collected approximately 14,000 signatures in just six weeks. Signatures on the petition came from 80 countries, including 26 African countries.
Trudeau must be aware that his policy of funding abortions does not make him very popular in the developing world.
According to Andrew Caddell, recently retired senior policy advisor at the Department of Global Affairs, the 133 developing nations at the UN which hold the power there, think abortion is anathema, and the last thing they want is to be told by Trudeau what their policy on abortion should be.
According to Caddell, as a result of Trudeau’s offensive abortion policy for Africa, his talk of Canada gaining a seat on the UN Security Council in 2021 has been undermined. Why would these countries want Canada on the Security Council when it wants to eliminate them?
The 2016 Census on Population in Canada
In February, 2017, Statistics Canada released its population statistics taken from the 2016 census, indicating that there were now over 35 million Canadians. This was a growth of 5% since the last census in 2011. Two-thirds of this population growth was thanks to immigration. Based on current trends, immigration will account for 80% of our population growth in twenty years.
The Conference Board of Canada has recommended increasing Canada’s annual immigration to 450,000 by the year 2025.
Even if Canada does this, it will not relieve our population problem, as it has in the past, without an increase in the natural birth rate.
This is because the immigration story is quite different today as the fertile immigrant no longer exists. According to the respected British magazine, The Economist (April 30, 2016), there has been a collapse of fertility rates in most countries. For example, fertility rates have plunged in both Mexico and Turkey, from more than six children per woman in 1960 to less than three today.
Further, immigrants’ birth rates are falling in Canada because immigrants tend to adapt to the ways of the host communities. This happens fast: migrants from high-fertility countries, like Nigeria and Somalia, have fewer babies when they come to Canada than their compatriots remaining at home.
Canada’s demographic problems are just beginning. We are going to have to deal with them sooner or later. Preferably, for our own good, it should be sooner.