The Catholic Church is warning that President Obama’s bid to promote birth control and reduce pregnancies will push the U.S. fertility rate to a new low, leaving younger Americans with the heavy burden of caring for a growing elderly population — and fewer Catholics.
The U.S. fertility rate now stands at 1.9 births per woman, down from 3.7 in 1960, and the Obama administration is mounting a campaign to reduce “unintended pregnancies” by 10 percent before 2020.
“It is the case that the Department of Health and Human Services has set a policy goal of reducing unintended pregnancies by 10 percent before 2020. If achieved, this would drive the U.S. fertility rate even lower below the replacement rate, currently 1.87 births per woman,” warned a new report.
“If successful, these put so many other government programs in danger of becoming unsustainable by constantly downsizing the next generation of workers and taxpayers who will support the ever growing top of the population pyramid,” said the latest research report from CARA, a research center affiliated with Georgetown University.
By extension, fewer pregnancies could reduce the number of Catholics in the nation, a worldwide trend as fertility rates drop across the globe.
“As the Catholic Church focuses this year on the family it must grapple with the fact that family is just simply becoming less common all together. Where it does exist, it most often now includes fewer people,” the report said.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
