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Let’s get rid of the “need” for abortion. Pro-life advocates have made enormous ground on in the legal battle to restrict and abolish abortion, and those praying on the spiritual front (such as 40 Days for Life, to name just one effort in this prayerful pro-life movement), have helped change hearts and minds by their loving example.

But pro-life advocates also need to pay more attention to the problem of “want” that drives this “need” among so many women for abortion. Perhaps the middle of the most serious world recession since the Great Depression is an excellent time for pro-life people to re-examine how restoring economic health to a nation, helps give it more confidence to embrace a culture of life, over a culture of death.

Here something important: census data from the past twenty years shows that the abortion rate in the United States has declined as the country has prospered. The decline in the abortion rate, however, has stalled when the economy is suffering, and people are not confident about being able to work and put food on the table.

Acton Institute has an analysis of the US fertility rate finally dipping in 2009 (2.01 children/woman) below replacement rate (2.1 children/woman). In plain terms, the United States is aging and dying in a greater proportion than a shrinking young worker (read taxpayer) base can sustain. This means the federal government must tax and borrow more money out of the economy to sustain a welfare state (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) that the taxpayer can no longer pay for.

But the US government’s borrowing billions from banks, means these lenders have far less an incentive to loan that money out to individuals, entrepreneurs, companies, etc. in the private sector. The government is always a safer loan: it can tax people to pay for its debts. The end result is that less cash is available for the private investment that drives a nation’s economy. Which means more people are out of work, and when times are tight, they don’t want to have children.

As a personal anecdote, several years ago I met a young woman “Alyssa” from Russia – about 25 years old – who worked as a Kindergarten teacher for $100 a month in Moscow, one of the top ten most expensive cities in the world. We were both waiting for buses at the Port Authority in New York City, and she told me that she was heading to Ohio, where she would supplement her income by selling cotton candy with friends at the carnival. But she told me that Russia was a sad place, and that even if she wanted to have a family she couldn’t even dream of it, because she could barely support herself.

When so many millions of people depend on a government that soon becomes unable to pay its debts à la Greece, Spain, France, Europe – well then welcome austerity measures, social unrest, and riots in the streets.

Pro-life advocates must address these long-term economic challenges. While the short term economic aid that charities like crisis pregnancy centers provide is valuable, the hopefulness of a culture of life is undercut by long term economic stagnation.

I’ll refer the reader to “Death and the Birth Dearth”  by Acton’s Jordan Ballor for the final sentiment – while we need to pay attention to economics, ultimately the moral and spiritual renewal of the United States is a necessary precondition. We just have to work for both at the same time:

“America needs a renewal of the moral ecology that places primary value on dignity and respect for human life. We need a moral culture that prizes having children, that celebrates parenthood as a legitimate and praiseworthy vocation.

“Without this kind of renewal, which would result in the literal ‘revival,’ or coming to life again, of the nation, there is far worse in store for us than chronically unbalanced budgets.”