ARTICLE: Decline In Birth Rate
I'm not an expert in anything other than questioning the world around me. This was a hot topic about six months ago. This is my opinion based on facts I read. It's written for scientific interest and pure curiosity. I would love to know what your thoughts and concerns are as well, but please be civil & respectful. Everyone deserves to be heard, and we should all be able to get our point across without shaming or flaming. Thank you. :)
In the show The Handmaid's Tale, the men blame the women for the low birth rate, and that plays a part in why the Handmaids are so important. I wanted to know how much truth was behind the idea. It got me curious about birth rates in America in comparison to other countries. On a grand scale, the world. Initially, I'm trying to find out what factors contribute to the rise and fall of the current birth rate in the U.S. pre-Covid, of course. Yes, I know pollution plays a factor. Age, environment, health conditions. I do want to know the data on that, but I mainly want to know the individual woman's impact as a whole on a low birth rate.
I Googled the birth rate of the U.S. in 2021 and found that America's birth rate was 12 births per 1000 people. In 2021, the world's birth rate was 17 births per 1000 people. In 2021, Niger had the highest birth rate of, on average, 7 children per woman. I find that interesting. That led me to wonder then, since I assumed the difference was from a lack of healthcare options in Niger. So my next question was, which is impossible to get an answer to, if Niger had the same healthcare options as American women do, would their birth rate be the same, fluctuate, or decrease? My guess is it would fluctuate, and probably stay that way for at least 20-40 years. That's assuming it would take approximately that long for beliefs to be bred out, and then the birth rate would start to decrease. That's my opinion. Getting back on point, compare them to the U.S. and it seems that our women are sterilizing themselves over time. I don't know that for a fact though, so I need to dig deeper in order to figure a percentage. I tried to think of what the leading cause could be of a decreasing birth rate that women would be mostly at fault for and came up with the morning-after pill, aka Plan B. I found that in the U.S., 2019 was the 5th year in a row that the birth rate decreased at a rate of 1% each year. I wanted to compare the birth rates of different states, so I could try to eliminate environmental factors, at least. I got a little sidetracked and was curious as to how much money Plan B yields in a year. I couldn't find that information so I had to figure a number myself. What led me to that is my belief that since it's a money-making machine, that's why they push it, with maybe an underlying agenda for population control. It was merely a curiosity and I don't believe it plays a role in the birth rate directly.
The morning-after pill costs $40-$50, less if you have a prescription. We'll go with the low-end cost just for shits and giggles, and assume that the majority won't have a prescription. We're also going to ignore the fact that it's possible to get for free from Planned Parenthood, under certain circumstances. For example, did you know there is no age restriction on Plan B? That means a 12-year-old little girl could go in and get one, no questions asked, no I.D. needed. Approximately 900 million teenagers in the world are adolescent girls and young women, "breeding age". Girls 16 and older can get Plan B over the counter. Girls 15 and under must have a prescription. By age 12, sexual activity for girls is around 2%. It jumps to about 33% by 16, and 48% by age 17, and increases from there. Plan B and others like it have no limits. You can take it as often as you need to in a single menstruation cycle, but Doctors suggest not taking it too regularly since it can throw off your cycle, causing irregular periods. Irregular periods throw off ovulation. See where I'm going with this?
Humans are usually dishonest when things don't go their way, and young girls, despite their mood swings making them seem like devil spawns, are human. It's safe to say that the majority will find a way to lie about how many times that month they took the pill, so they can take the pill. That being said, and based on the information so far, let's say half of them ( 450 million ) are active and getting Plan B at the cost of $40 per pill. Since you can take this method on average 3 times a month, we will once again go with the low end here of 1 pill a month, to spare the headache I'm starting to get. So that's 450 million girls buying 1 pill a month, at 12 months per year, and at $40 per pill. For one month, 450,000,000 pills x $40 per pill is around $18 billion. That's $216 billion a year. Is that right? California is one of the states experiencing record lows right now, and the funny thing is, in 2001 they sanctioned trials allowing a percentage of their women to buy the morning-after pill without a prescription at designated pharmacies. Since then, in 2016 they were at their lowest birth rate of just 12 births per 1000 women. After seeing the increase in sales of Plan B, and the decline in birth rates over the years, I then wanted to know if there was an increase in STDs.
It would be logical to assume the general thought amongst teens would be "Hey, if you don't wanna use a condom, then don't use a condom. Just buy me the pill tomorrow". The answer is yes, there has been an increase in STD ( sexually transmitted disease ) cases. As a matter of fact, STD cases have been on the rise since 2011, and between 2015 and 2019 there was a 30% increase in Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis, according to the CDC. Basically, since Plan B came to market in 1999, it took only 16 years for this increase to make an impact, and the amount of STD cases is still increasing every year. Getting back to women's role in the declining birth rate, I read up on IUDs. Planned Parenthood says that with IUDs, "Some people feel cramps or pain, but it doesn't last long and medicine can help". Alright, so now we may need a combination of pills and methods to help with this and that. "You may be offered medicine to help open and/or numb your cervix before the IUD is put in". "IUDs can be put in at any point in your menstrual cycle, and you can usually get one put in right after giving birth or having an abortion". Planned Parenthood goes on to say, "Hormonal IUDs eventually make periods lighter and less crampy, and you might stop getting a period at all".
Well, now I had to Google if you can get pregnant or ovulate without having a period, and vice versa in order to determine whether this information was relevant to women's impact on the birth rate, and I found that "it is easier to conceive if your periods are regular". "Since your period results from ovulation, it is uncommon to ovulate without having a period". Healthline says, "If you’re breastfeeding, you should not use Ella. However, Levonorgestrel (Plan B type) ECPs (emergency contraceptive procedures) are safe for use while breastfeeding". Wait. I wasn't thinking of that. So you can pass it on to the baby while breastfeeding, hmmm. I get that it might be safe for the baby's health like it's not going to kill the baby. But what about in the long run? They can't know what this stuff will do to a baby's future fertility, or what it might do being in a female infant's body that long. If you breastfeed for a year, and you take Plan B 3 times a month that's 36 of those pills you're leaking off into your baby. Levonorgestrel is the main ingredient of Plan B, and drugs like it. It's a hormone that prevents the release of an egg from the ovary. I find it hard to believe that using a hormone to stop eggs from being released over a long period of time and using it so often won't affect fertility in the long run. You're training your anatomy to not produce what it was designed to. I understand not everyone wants to have kids, but with a little self-control, that can be managed without increasing your risk of sterility, allowing you to have options in the future. Your body is a fully functioning system and like all systems, it needs to be allowed to run the way it was intended. As we have all seen over time, when one single small thing is off in your body, it can throw a whole plethora of things off, leading to more issues. (Please keep in mind this isn't about gender therapies, or undergoing surgeries. That's a post for another time. This is only referring to heterosexuals). I also find it hard to believe that pumping it into your baby, male or female, won't have an impact on their future fertility, especially with their bodies still developing.
Introducing this hormone to an infant's body even once is a risk I wouldn't take. I've read that excessive use of Plan B, or IUD, or methods like these, won't make you sterile over time, but since words can be used to persuade, I think I'll stick to the numbers. It appears that messing with the biological clock is a greater risk to the human race than they want us to think.
And there you have it. The many paths Google takes us in a two-hour trip around the internet. I think it's interesting how Googling one thing can lead to learning about so many different things in a short amount of time.
As with everything around the web, if you check out these sources, do so at your own risk. These sites were safe when I went last.
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