Like clockwork, babies always seem to show up nine months after a historic event. Whether it's the Super Bowl, a massive snowstorm, or celebrating the boom after a world war, there are times we usually expect the birth rate to increase.
Last spring, there were many articles wondering aloud about the possibility of a 'Rona baby boom.
Turns out, the inverse has actually happened. Sociologist and demographer Philip Cohen from the University of Maryland has put together data indicating that birth rates have substantially declined during the past few months – about the time you'd expect to see babies being born from those first few weeks of lockdowns last March and April.
"This is a bad situation," said Cohen. "The declines we're seeing now are… pretty substantial."
This baby bust is significant. Let's remember that birth rates have already been on the decline – something that leads to huge societal ramifications if not addressed soon. The death rate, after all, is 100% last I checked, and other nations like Japan with aging populations and few kids are experiencing huge problems. It turns out, people get sick and die, and if there aren't enough people being born to take up the torch, your civilization ceases to exist.
In Dec. 2020, birthrates were down significantly across America from the year before, including 8% in Florida, 7% in Ohio, and 5% in Arizona. There has also been a steep drop in pregnancy-related searches on Google.
One Ohio hospital network saw an 11% drop in births in the second half of 2020 compared to the same period last year, and a Texas health network saw a 13% drop in births this last December – the ninth straight month where they saw fewer births than the corresponding month in 2019.
There is one silver lining, however. As noted by NBC:
"Cohen adds that the restrictions on restaurants, bars, and other social gatherings also likely reduced the amount of casual sex taking place, which likely reduced the number of unplanned pregnancies in America."
That also means the number of abortions related to such unplanned pregnancies will decrease.
In fact, abortions are now the lowest they've been in America since Roe v. Wade was passed.
COVID-19 seems to have sped up the inevitable and long-enduring problems we have in America concerning our views on marriage and family. We aren't only aiming to "disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure," we just plain aren't having kids anymore.
"When you look at child care, health care, housing, or education costs… these are things that put a big damper on the number of children that people have, and also make it difficult to raise them," said Cohen said. "I hope we're learning lessons… if we have the capacity to learn from that, we can make some decisions that really make it better and easier and more-fulfilling to raise children in the future."
It's going to take serious effort to change that trend, but take heart! The good news is that in this moment, Christians have a greater opportunity to share the hope and love of the model God gives us for marriage and parenting in the Bible – and to cut through the disdain that Hollywood and academia have for such things.
