Equality versus Extinction.

The U.S. birth rate is in serious decline. In order to maintain a society, a birth rate of 2.11 children per woman is required. By ethnicity, the lowest birth rate is Caucasians with 1.83. Asians are just slightly higher with 1.84. African-Americans are maintaining the bare minimum of 2.11 and Hispanics are the only group with a healthy birth rate of 2.91. Based on these rates, Caucasians will be a minority in the United States by 2050. By that point, Hispanics will be the majority. This will be an historic event as the founding stock of the most powerful nation on earth will be a minority within its own borders.

So what are the reasons for this? They are many and varied. One interesting fact is that no population in which there is substantial equality for women is maintaining a sustainable birth rate. Where women have no rights, they have children when they don't want to. Transversely, where women have equal rights, they choose not to have as many children. This presents a bitter choice for westernized nations: extinction or equality.

I point to three different factors which have all combined to push the once-robust American birth rate to record lows. First and most obvious: the development of the birth control pill in the 1950's. Ortho-Novum has given women control over their reproductive destiny. Second: the rise of feminism. Feminism has told several generations of women that having a family isn't what should define them. Not only are women having less children today but they are choosing to have children much later in life. When women choose a career in their 20's and children in their 30's, they are greatly reducing the total amount of children they will have. Third: the lifting of the ban on Abortion. Gone are the days when an unwanted pregnancy meant the inevitable birth of a child.

So what role do men play in all of this? A woman's decision to bare children is just that, a woman's. The reproductive rights of women in westernized nations dictate that the birth rate is ultimately their responsibility. Still, men can certainly influence a rise in birth rates by being more receptive to the act of fatherhood. Many, many women receive abortions because the man has long since left and they do not wish to raise a child alone.

As a man, I can not attempt to say what women should do with unwanted pregnancies. I can only hope that motherhood, fatherhood and the American family unit is encouraged to flourish like it once was. That aspect of American society--more than any other in my opinion--is what has allowed this country to rise to dominance.

Works cited

Kent, Mary "US fertility in decline" Population reference Bureau http://www.prb.org/Articles/2011/us-fertility-decline.aspx

Central Intelligence Agency World Fact Book. Country Comparison of Total Fertility Rates. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html