Spain is on course to ease its restrictive law on abortion, setting the stage for another clash between a Socialist government that has already introduced sweeping social changes and conservatives and Catholic clergy bent on preserving traditional family values.
A parliamentary committee took the first step this week, recommending that the government legalize early stage abortions, while gradually imposing more restrictions as pregnancies progress.
Abortion is technically a crime in Spain, though it is readily available under the current system, with women needing a doctor’s certification that their health ”” either physical or mental ”” would be at risk if the pregnancy was allowed to proceed.
Perhaps it’s time for the Pope to excommunicate every Catholic member of the Sanish government who votes for this.
As I recall, Spain’s birth rate is already at something around 1.4, about 2/3 of what’s required to just maintain a stable population. Spaniards seem to be committing slow-motion suicide.
In the meantime, Archbishop Orombi has called for a Lenten fast to stop child sacrifice in Uganda:
“Orombi said the leaders of the Orthodox, Catholic and the Seventh Day Adventist churches had already assented for the campaign.
He said the drive was aimed at making Ugandans repent and ask God to forgive and heal the land.
“There is greed, corruption and an inhuman thirst to spill innocent blood because our society is degenerating owing to greed, Godlessness and moral corruption,” he said.”
From Ugandan new site: http://www.newvision.co.ug/detail.php?mainNewsCategoryId=8&newsCategoryId=13&newsId=672052
A similar confrontation between socialists and Catholics lead to civil war in Spain (1936-1939). No one wants to see that happen again. The Spanish voted for this leader. If they are really unhappy with the direction he is taking the country, they can vote him out! If they don’t really care, they’ll soon discover that they have lost all freedom.
For more on child sacrifice in Uganda, go here:
http://college-ethics.blogspot.com/2009/01/child-sacrifice-on-rise-in-uganda.html
The Socialists are also trying to push Catholicism out of schools under the guise of ‘Citizenship education’ and are facing some pushback in Valencia and elsewhere, where schools are refusing to teach it – or are teaching it in English!
Meanwhile, the Spanish birthrate is below replacement rate and, like much of Europe, is approaching the point of no return, for it will be impossible for future generations to make up the numbers.
Which means they will have either unfeasably large numbers of retired people with a small working population facing crushing social security bills, or they will have to import more people.
Who will come from North Africa and Turkey.
Who will be Muslims. La Rereconquista!
Both Spain and France are populated with many “Cultural Catholics”. If you visit your eyes will be opened when you see how poorly attended the services are in the Cathedral churches in the larger cities.
Both of these countries are headed the same direction as the Scandinavians with similar declining birth rates and a loss of spiritual vitality. The actual birth rate decline for the Spanish and French is actually much worse if one factors out the Muslim births. Both countries are ripe for Christian evangelism.
5.,
The replacement birthrate for developed countries is 2.1 births per woman. The birthrate for metropolitan France is 1.98. The birthrate for metropolitian France and overseas departments is 2.0. There have been equal birthrate increases across Europe, including Ireland, Italy, Germany and the Nordic countries. In North Africa (by which i mean those african countries bordering the Med), only Libya has a total fertility rate higher than the replacement rate. The rest are at or below (Algeria and Tunisia being ‘below’). Likewise Turkey is below the replacement birthrate, as is Iran. This ‘demographic timebomb’ that is somehow going to cause the Islamicization of Europe is nativist nonsense.
6.,
Can you provie the figures that break down birthrates by religious affiliation for a specific country?
Isaac, according to [url=http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=113555]Al Masry Al Youm[/url], Egypt’s birthrate was 3.1 just three years ago, and is still high. This birthrate in the largest Arab-speaking nation, which borders the Mediterranean, is well above the replacement rate.
According to [url=http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?c=tu&v=25]this chart[/url], Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco all have birth rates higher than the U.S., which is generally considered to be a bit above replacement rate, and much higher than all of Western Europe.
Katherine, the CIA World Factbook puts it at 2.72, half a child higher than the replacement birth rate (and I think it’s debatable whether half a child increases live birth rates… 😉 ). Morover, the 2.1 rate is for [i]developed[/i] countries like Western Europe; its much higher (possibly as high as 3.3) for non-developed countries like Egypt. At any case, its’ a declining birthrate. Al Masry is moaning about overpopulation; they’re trying to decrease theirs.
Katherine, you need to look at ‘Total Fertility Rate’ rather than ‘birth rate.’ TFR takes into account the ability of the born child to live long enough to actully reproduce, not just the birth of the child. If you look at tht chart in [url=http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?t=0&v=31&l=en]Total Fertility Rates[/url], you’ll notice that France has a higher TFR than Turkey.
All I can tell you, Isaac, is that Egypt, the largest Arab country, is bursting at the seams, population growing at a rate which may outstrip the Nile water supply, and this is in spite of poverty and less-than-wonderful medical care for much of the populace.
With respect, I’m not sure that’s relevant. And it actually helps support my argument; Egyptian infrastructure can’t support a high birth rate and is falling. Just because Egypt is crowded [i]now[/i] doesnt mean its crowded [i]later[/i]. It’s called population momentum.
#13- Which is why Egypt will have to export parts of its population into Western Europe. People go where the food and the room is.
The more pertinent question is how radicalized the incoming immigrant population is. Being Muslim in and of itself obviously does not equate with being a suicide bomber or a jihadist, anymore than being a Christian equates with being a follower of Fred Phelps.
What is troubling is to see reports in England and France where the Muslim population is becoming more radicalized over time. I remember the riots in France about two years ago and last year’s demonstrations in England that showed a greater hold on the Muslim population of the more radical sect.
This speaks to a failure of cultural assimilation which is much maligned by the left, but was the glue that held together the US- a nation of immigrants. Instead of making newcomers feel welcome, the protocol of “sensitivity” and ethnic pride have created a balkinazation of communities in western European countries based on religious, language and land of origin. A people that are never assimilated into a culture feel left out, and don’t benefit from the culture’s success. Being alienated opens them to the most outspoken- who almost always happen to be radicals.
Identifying the problem is easy and easily identifiable, the solution unfortunately is not so easy.
#13: There are still millions of underemployed young Turks and North Africans. Odds are, many of them will end up in aging Europe. Bad as things look in western Europe, in eastern Europe (Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine) they look catastrophic.
France’s TFR is due to its Muslim population having 4+ children. Look for a new Bosnia developing.
The US was (and still is) a melting pot, but it was essentially a *Christian melting pot, with an Asian outlier in Hawaii.
14. — Maybe. I have some signiicant doubts Mubarak would ever let a large portion of his population immigrate anywhere. And as far as assimilation goes, I think it’s an issue, but then again, the UK and US especially have had difficulties assimiliating their immigrants. The East End has always been an immigrant area; the only thing that’s changed is the names and the accents.
15. There are still millions of young unemployed Brits and other Europeans. Political and economic reality would suggest that gov’ts are more likely to raise barriers to immigration in a recession, rather thn lower them. Second, I’d like to see some support for the claim that Muslims are having 4+ children, and how a population that makes up less than 10% of the metropolitan French population can affect the TFR that significantly. My guess is that the rise in the TFR is due to the French gov’t subsidizing large families.
The birth rate in Spain is 1.15, about half of what is needed just to tread water, population-wise.