So If We Expand Social Programs Abortion Rates WIll Go Down

That is the theory at least we hear from the Catholic left and from people like Prof Kmeic. I have always bee doubtful of this. Partly because I don't think we see this trend in other nations that have more extensive programs and in fact many of the same programs that many Catholics and others want duplicated here.

The latest bad news is Spain which not the "welfare state" of some its neighbors still has some extensive. Over at the Corner yesterday:

Lights out [Mark Steyn]
As NR's in-house demography bore, I thought it worth a couple of updates on the biggest story of our time, the one that will determine the shape of the mid-21st century. From The Guardian:

Japan's workers are being urged to switch off their laptops, go home early and use what little energy they have left on procreation, in the country's latest attempt to avert demographic disaster...
A recent survey of married couples under 50 found that more than a third had not had sex in the previous month.

Many couples said they didn't have the energy for sex, while others said they found it boring.

Well, it's no karaoke night. 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.
[UPDATE: A reader corrects me:
Lives are terminated, Mark, not pregnancies. Let's not cast in a euphemism the upshot of the abortionist's craft.]
11/29 09:12 AM

This bad news is followed closely by the UK which has a extensive social welfare network.

From the UK's Daily Mail:

The number of women having an abortion in England and Wales exceeded 200,000 for the first time last year.
There has been an increased figure almost every year since the legalisation of abortion in 1967 – and the indications are this year’s figure will be even higher.
Britain’s termination rate is already the highest in Western Europe, and if trends continue it will bypass the U.S. within a decade as the place where the greatest proportion of births are terminated.
The shocking figures came just months after MPs rejected moves to restrict abortion to under 20 weeks only, in a bid to call a halt to the year-on-year rises.
The limit for social abortions stayed at 24 weeks.


Abortion laws differ greatly among Europe with an unfortunate trend toward less restrictions. The fact that this is occurring in countries that are literally dying out is mind blowing.

Besides the moral concerns of abortion we are seeing a very dangerous situation develop. Russia that has more abortions than live births is a case in point. There little jaunt in Georgia on the basis of the presence of "ethnic Russians" is a small example of that. If you don't reproduce look for a country to expand to get more warm bodies. If I was in Japan I would be very nervous.

The Demographic time Bomb we are facing worldwide and especially in the WEST should be a huge political issue. But is one that is never talked about.