Posted on 03/18/2006 3:13:31 PM PST by NYer
BERLIN, Germany, March 17, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) Germanys birth rate is now the lowest in Europe. Only 8.5 babies were born in Germany last year for every 1,000 residents.
In 1964, 1.36 million babies were born in Germany. In 2005, half as many children were born, at just 680,000the birth rate hasnt been this low since the end of the Second World War, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
The German city of Chemnitz, in former East Germany, has the lowest birth rate in the world, with 6.9 babies born per 1,000 residents.
The tradition in the 1950s, 60s and even the 80s in Germany was that a mother was only a mother and looked after the children, Michael Hüther, who heads up Colognes economics institute, told the Guardian.
We are reaching a critical point, he said to Die Welt newspaper. The number of births now determines what happens in the next decade-and-a-half to two decades. You cant revise it afterwards. The availability of human capital will get worse, and act as a brake on growth.
Efforts to shore up the birth rate have been mainly unsuccessful so far. Germanys family minister Ursula von der Leyen introduced tax breaks last year to help couples that wanted children. Increased nursery places and a new state-funded welfare scheme requiring men to take two months off work for families to qualify were also introduced, but none of the changes have had a significant impact on the rate of birth.
All of Europe is facing the same plummeting birthrate. According to Eurostat, the EUs statistics agency, by 2050 Europes population will have fallen by around 1.5%, or 7 million people. The birth rate in Britain is at 12 births per 1,000 residents. In France the number is 12.7, in the Netherlands 11.9, and in Ireland 15.2.
In Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, birth rates are falling as well. Polands rate is 9.3, Bulgaria is at 9 and Latvia has one of the lowest rates, at 8.8.
I'm sure the Germans would appreciate Mexicans instead of the Muslim Turks they have now.
Besser! Tanz Mit Laibach!
Ireland's rate is still high - for now.
I suppose that I am just old-fashioned but I cannot understand why pregnancies even happen outside marriage, what with the availability of excellent birth control methods available. For example, I have lived 60+ years and have never caused a pregnancy, mainly because I opted for a vasectomy. But I think that I could have achieved the same result with condoms.
I sign on to something I once read about: the development of a method (not yet available) whereby pregnancy is forced to be a positive development, i.e., it would be impossible for a woman to become pregnant until a "lock-unlock" mechanism is activated. The woman and her partner would have to make the decision to have a baby and the "lock" would be undone. Sure, it reeks a bit of government control, but only to an extent since the couple would have final say. Obviously, the current system doesn't work very well (your data show that) and anything like this would have to be a positive change.
Unmarried pregnancies also encourage the abominable practice of abortion. Damned if an unmarried woman carries a pregnancy to term, damned if she doesn't.
Well, I don't consider you a parent until you are outnumbered. ;)
There are an awful lot of ethnic Germans in the United States, myself included. Maybe more than there are in Germany, for all I know. Too bad there is absolutely nothing in the old country that would entice them to return. Who wants to sign on for the demographic collapse, and pay all one's life into a welfare scheme only to have your throat slit on the day you retire?
I'd prefer to send off the Muslims.
you're absolutely right - uniformed whole sale criticism, hate and ignorance are the only solutions for any problem.
your correct - selfish and grumpy are my surnames.
so - there's 70 abortions in 163 pregnancies of black woman that are not married ?
I am just speechless.
and why ?
I don't mean it as such, but what I am going to say could be construed as racist by some. That is, these numbers are the basis for the argument that is being made that unrestricted abortions are damaging future prospects for the DIMocrats. i.e. most of these aborted babies would have ended up as DIMS.
Interesting idea, but I don't agree, for several reasons.
Anyway, the thing that is really significant (besides the future economic implications) is that abortion is being used as a primary means of birth control. Taxpayers get screwed eitheer way. Paying for welfare babies or paying for the cost of the abortions (not chump change).
We have somewhere else in mind for them.
It's horrible - it means that 40% of the children of unmarried black women get aborted. It's nearly a routine.
BTW I certainly do not care what the costs of abortions are.
There's a possibility to abort with a pill - really cheap and benign method. But that's not the point. And it of no importance if and who these unborn children had voted for if they had not been killed.
We got 7 of 1000 pregnancies aborted in germany. Every abortion is a drama since we got more parents willing to adopt a child then new borns given away by their mothers.
If mothers can't stand giving birth after beeing raped or because of an other real exceptional condition I always considered it the right of the mother to have the last word may it be yes or no - because no mother would make a decision like that light heartedly.
I have to change my mind I guess.
Heck, look at the unmarried white numbers. It's over 40% there, also. The only difference is that a much higher number of unmarried blacks get pregnant to begin with.
Another interesting question here is, how many of these 40% aborted pregnancies are repeat abortions? We do know that some of these women have had multiple abortions. But, how many?
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