The Birds and the Bees—But Not the Spanish
Stunned. Just stunned:
In formerly Catholic Spain, meanwhile, the land of the upside-down family tree (four grandparents, two children, one grandchild), they’re still going forth but they’re not multiplying:
Abortion Now Number One Cause Of Death In Spain
Under Spain’s practically nonexistent restrictions, abortions have more than doubled since the mid 1990s, climbing from 51,006 in 1996 to over 120,000 in 2007. The abortion rate is now approaching one in five pregnancies (18.3%), according to the report…
The IPF report also notes that the proportion of women having their second or later abortion has risen substantially since 2000, from 23% that year to 31% in 2006…
Spain’s abortion rate is a major contributor to the country’s worsening demographic problems.
They’ve still got a ways to go to catch up with Russia, where two-thirds of pregnancies are terminated.
Some civilizations are conquered, others are buried in pyroclastic flows, others still die off in mysterious circumstances. But how many commit progenicide?
Carol said,
November 29, 2008 @ 4:55 pm
Progenicide - lovely word, is it yours?
I can see how a woman might have one abortion. After all, everyone tells her it’s no big deal, just a clump of cells, doesn’t mean anything. But how on earth can someone have two or more? No condoms, no pills, no IUDs? Even if the realization that the clump of cells is a whole lot more than a mere clump of cells doesn’t hit you, why on earth would you want to undergo more than one dangerous surgical procedure when you don’t have to?
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
November 30, 2008 @ 5:54 am
“Progenicide - lovely word, is it yours?”
Yes and no. I came up with it on my own, but when I googled it, I saw that others had done so before me.
This story is proof to me of the conservative’s/reactionary’s warning that the personal is political. I may be able to understand an individual decision to have an abortion, even when the scientist inside me—scientist, not moralist—insists that the act is the taking of a life.
When one life is disposable, what happens to the value of the society? This story leaves no room for question. We look cross-eyed at families bigger than four, and we abandon the weakest among us: unborn children. What kind of future does that portend? If I sound like Phyllis Schlafly, well, the old broad makes a lot of sense. But I’m really just parroting Mark Steyn.
BTL
Count to 10 said,
November 30, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
Um, isn’t a 20% abortion rate about what we have here in the US?
Carol said,
November 30, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
It does not require anything more than science to realize that abortion is the taking of a human life: once sperm and egg have united, there is a complete set of human DNA in there, and the cells are clearly alive - they respire, they excrete waste, they take in nutrition, and they reproduce. So live cells with complete human DNA. If that’s not human life, then I don’t kow what is.
I found a very interesting article on the London Times this morning about the quality of care provided to the elderly at the end of their years, and how the wishes of the old and dying are ignored time and again. It’s too bad that people are surprised by this: once your life can be terminated at the beginning, you start to rob it of all value through its course, and it’s no surprise at all that you are treated like annoying rubbish at the end. Or even worse, you are deprived of the end at all because you are a burden on the state.
Joe O'Neill said,
November 30, 2008 @ 1:49 pm
I’m afraid that I have to disagree with you guys on this one….reducing the human impact on the earth must be good !
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
November 30, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
Joe: I think the earth can handle humans fine. You might think that, too, when you’re old and gray, and there’s no one providing for your dotage. Mark Steyn’s inverted family tree is unsustainable.
Count: You’re right about the abortion rate in the US (if not a little conservative), but our fertility rate is still above 2, while Spain’s has been “climbing” to 1.37.
I have no issue with population control, but unless we cull the herd in all age demographics, there will be economic and political hell to pay.