More abortions are carried out in Britain than any other country in Europe, research has shown.
It has overtaken France – which has a larger population – to become the abortion capital of the continent.
The rising rate has been pushed up by abortions among teenage girls, which increased by nearly a third over the past decade.
Half of all pregnancies among girls under 18 in Britain end in abortion.
I had to read the last sentence several times to make I got what it said. Really sad. Read it all
What hugely sad figures these are, and what an indictment on us as a nation. Here’s another statistic: we have admitted 3 million immigrants to our crowded little island in the last 10 years, and yet people say that there was no room for these aborted babies. Or they say that the immigrants are necessary because of a shortage of workers. Go figure, as you say in the US.
Above all, though, it is the amazing collapse of family values which underlies this sad imbroglio. How did this happen? How did we manage so quickly to lose confidence in the values which had guided our parents and generations before them? What created this implosion? You can point to lots of factors: the cynical media, weak churches and a stridently secular government. Even so, the swiftness of the sea-change baffles me.
This brings us back to the issue of Demographic Winter:
From “First Things” March 19, 2008 (Ironically the feast of St. Joseph, Father of the Holy Family)
[blockquote] Obscured by debates over epiphenomena like exploding immigration and bankrupt pension funds is the brute fact that Europe is already suffering from a devastating, crippling shortage of people. The populations of no fewer than thirteen European countries, including Russia, Poland, and Hungary, have already begun to crash. The total fertility rate for Europe, including the former Soviet republics, currently averages an anemic 1.4 children per woman, and no increase is in sight. As a result, the current population of 728 million will plunge to only 557 million by the year 2050, a drop similar in magnitude to that occurring during the Black Death. At that point, Europe will be losing three to four million people a year. Three out of four Europeans will have disappeared by the end of the twenty-first century, when the population will number only 207 million. By then the population decline will be irreversible, with the surviving Europeans averaging more than sixty years of age.
The plunge has already begun in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Russia’s population is already decreasing by three-quarters of a million people each year; Ukraine’s, by a quarter million. Russia’s population is slated to decrease from 143 million in 2005 to 112 million in 2050. [/blockquote]
To be found here: http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2008/03/the-demographic-winter-and-the
Not to worry, Fr. J, the Muslims will move in to fill the gap.
And I wonder… How is the Roma population doing?
1. Terry Tee,
At the risk of sounding simplistic, I believe that the abortion disaster, the demographic collapse and the immigration issue (to replace Westerners never born) are all tied to an issue that no one wants to talk about: Contraception.
Since contraception has become the norm in the West, a whole new menatality has taken hold. The contraceptive mentality has made of the body a playground rather than the locus of the miracle of life. Children are viewed as liabilities who cost their parents money, worry, freedom, their own unending childhood.
If adolescence is the time in life when one is sexually mature but fiscally or emotionally incapable of marriage and childbearing, then it has extended from 3-5years duration in the 19th Century (puberty at 13-14 and marriage at 16-18) to a duration up to 25 years (puberty now around 11 and marriage often waiting until the early to mid-thirties). Children, once the center of family life are now an option, a late addition to follow the purchase of a large home, fancy cars, professional goals. They have become another asset to manipulated around their parents lifestyles.
This unconscious materialism is the death of Western civilization being regularly decried by Rome and Moscow to little avail.
The case of Russia is distinct in its history but not in its effects. Russian demographics are now past the point of no return: http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/russia/
They didn’t start it, but faux ‘Catholic’ Tony Blair and ‘Son of the Manse’ (but not a Christian himself) Gordon Brown have systematically undermined Christian faith in the public life of the UK in the same way that Obama is seeking to do as well. The nonsense of ‘hate crimes’ is one of the strategies.
This is the real treason of our age.
I think the salient fact not mentioned here is that the UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the EU (as well as a divorce rate approaching 50%, despite also having a low marriage rate). The sexual ethics of the heterosexual community in the UK does seem pretty screwed up, and in this respect, the UK has been very poorly served by the churches, who have spent the last nearly ten years now only being interested in screaming out how much they dislike homosexuals. It hasn’t led to a balanced ethic at all, has it?
Britain does have a dreadful legacy of sexual hypocrisy, unfortunately. We have both one of the most prudish and one of the smuttiest societies in Western Europe: the two attitudes, the result of a certain unhealthy type of Protestantism, seem to march hand in hand. In the Low Countries, for example, they are more tolerant and less taboo-ridden, and consequently have healthier attitudes to sex.
I agree that this is terrible news. I am wondering if anyone can enlighten me as to why China is not #1 in number of abortions (the article puts Russia first). I thought China’s 1-child policy would result in highest abortion rates.
Can we believe any statistics coming out of China?
~6: sin is sin, Mark. Just watching how the gays will start exiting Holland as the numbers of Muslims increase.
Fr. J (#2),
Thanks for reminding us all of that disturbing prospect of “Demographic Winter,” which is already in its early stages. I printed the Steve Mosher article from [b]First Things[/b] to review from time to time and share with others.
But meanwhile, like Kendall, I was struck forcefully by that appalling statistic he highlighted above:
{i}”HALF of all pregnancies among girls under 18 in Britain end in abortion.”{/i} Half! The enormity of the implications of that boggle the mind and chill the soul.
I was find it disturbing to ponder the significance of what countries around the world have the largest numbers of abortions. The ignominious list goes like this:
#1….. Russia, despite having the worst case of imploding demographics.
#2….. USA, despite its relatively strong economy and record numbers of church goers.
#3….. India, the least surprising country on the list with its huge population and massive poverty.
#4….. Japan, despite its lack of minority groups and general prosperity.
#5….. UK, despite all the billions spent on trying to reduce teen pregancies through education about “safe sex.”
Three of the top five (osers) are among the most prosperous countries on earth, leaving them without even any potential excuse.
David Handy+
P.S. Since Russia is even worse in this terrible category, the title of the article should have said that Britain is now the dreadful abortion capital of WESTERN Europe.
David Handy+
lol . . .
RE: “who have spent the last nearly ten years now only being interested in screaming out how much they dislike homosexuals.”
No they haven’t.
Perhaps the ABC needs to meet with certain ECUSA/TEC seminary deans to learn what a blessing this is. I nominate Ragsdale, who preaches that abortion is a blessing since it removes the impediments to mutual satisfaction that changing diapers brings. The ABC just doesn’t seem to have gotten the message clearly. Also, a certain country bishop could be consulted on the proper education of teenagers about sexual mores and behaviors and church teaching. The CoE needs to get with the times and maybe enact a blessing or two that would solve this and get more zeitgeistian.
[i] Off topic comment deleted by elf. [/i]
I apologise for this late post. A comment, if I may, to Fr Mark. Informed opinion about The Netherlands has pointed to a different factor in that country’s more responsible sexual practice: namely, there are very few single parents, compared with Britain. Yes, I know, they are not saints in the Netherlands, but the UK custom of women having babies on their own either because they have been abandoned by the men or because they themselves prefer it that way is comparatively rare in the Netherlands. The greatest single predictor of whether a woman will become a single mother is whether her mother was a single parent. In the UK this is creating an underclass that will never break free. And, to return to our topic, it is this group also that would be more likely to end the pregnancy by abortion.