A culture of death is economically anti-stimulative

In 1995, Pope John Paul II asserted, "...it cannot be denied that such a culture of death, taken as a whole, betrays a completely individualistic concept of freedom, which ends up by becoming the freedom of the strong against the weak who have no choice but to submit."

For 36 years, the freedom of "the strong," the politically powerful, has silenced the weak, the unborn, "who have no choice but to submit," to the death sentence of abortion.

But the culture of death takes it toll in less obvious ways also.

Take, for instance, the recent efforts of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in her bizarre effort to promote contraception as a part of the economic stimulus package!

Thankfully, because of public outcry, it was pulled out. But one wonders about the rationale of one who could advance and defend this effort in which over 10 percent of the $827 billion House stimulus bill was earmarked for Medicaid assistance to states including family planning services and contraception.

In an editorial entitled "Speaker Nancy Malthus: Pelosi should abstain from social engineering," The Wall Street Journal reasoned, "The implication is that more people means less economic growth."

According to the Journal, when asked on ABC's "This Week" how millions of dollars on family planning would stimulate the economy, Ms. Pelosi responded, "family planning services reduce costs," and added "The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now, and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help states meet their fi- nancial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception - will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

The Journal then rightly pointed out how vital human capital is to economic growth. It continued, "The age and growth rate of a nation help determine its economic prosperity. A smaller workforce can result in less overall economic output. Without enough younger workers to replace retirees, health and pension costs can become debilitating. And when domestic markets shrink, so does capital investment. Whatever one's views on taxpayer subsidies for contraception, as economic stimulus the idea is loopy."

Mark Earley, former Attorney General of Virginia and current President of Prison Fellowship Ministries, commented Monday, "This is very revealing, and very wrong on so many levels. For starters, while I doubt that this was the Speaker's intention, it has a strong whiff of eugenics - the attempt to 'improve' the human race by reducing reproduction among certain classes of people."

He continued, "The proponents of the measure aren't concerned about upper middle-class families having more children - their concern is with poor people having children. In this respect, they are following in the footsteps of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, whose explicit goal was to "limit and discourage the overfertility of the mentally and physically defective" - meaning someone that wasn't like her.

While no one talks like that today, Planned Parenthood has stated that its "core clients" are "young women, low-income women, and women of color" - the same people targeted by the stimulus proposal.

He contrasted Pelosi's plan with the reality striking Japan, a country anticipating a 21 percent drop in population by 2050. Facing an economic debacle of too few workers, "Japan's employers are urging workers to go home earlier and, well, make babies…." Japan's post-war economic miracle is threatened by its low birthrate. So Japanese employers are telling employees to go home and have bigger families. The Japanese have learned what Speaker Pelosi hasn't - that "the age and growth rate of a nation help determine its economic prosperity."

It is tragic that our government, contrary to its founding documents promoting life, has taken such a strong stance promoting death through abortion and unsound public policy such as Ms. Pelosi's funding efforts. But we have been on a slippery slope of death for far too long. Peculiar reasoning should not be surprising even when framed in terms of "we're trying to help."

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