Millions of Abortions, Not Enough Babies

Birthrates have been falling for decades in numerous nations around the world, presenting a serious and growing population crisis. On May 13, 2024, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Suddenly There Aren’t Enough Babies. The Whole World is Alarmed.” The article began, “The world is at a startling demographic milestone. Sometime soon, the global fertility rate will drop below the point needed to keep population constant. It may have already happened. Fertility is falling almost everywhere, for women across all levels of income, education and labor-force participation. The falling birthrates come with huge implications for the way people live, how economies grow and the standings of the world’s superpowers.”

Many nations and their leaders recognize the serious demographic problem caused by declining birthrates but fail to address the source of the problem. Perhaps the main cause of the falling birthrates and resulting population crisis is that tens of millions of babies die each year around the world before they are born, thereby causing birthrates to fall. Heartbreakingly, these millions of babies die because people kill them. This is the current state of the abhorrent practice called abortion—as in, “we’re aborting this human being’s life.”

There are other factors contributing to the huge problem of a lack of babies, such as the propagation of lifestyles that tear down the biblical model of the family, which brings about children. But none contribute as directly to this problem as the intentional killing of millions of babies before their birth.

Consider the following gut-wrenching statistics. According to a study published in The Lancet, an average of 73 million abortions per year took place globally between 2015 and 2019 (“Unintended pregnancy and abortion by income, region, and the legal status of abortion: estimates from a comprehensive model for 1990–2019, July 22, 2020”). In comparison, approximately 134 million babies were born (“How many people die and how many are born each year?,” OurWorldinData.org). This means that, on average, about 35 percent of all unborn babies were deliberately aborted. Clearly, abortion is a main cause of too few babies being born.

Abortion is a prime example of the relevance and truth of the Apostle Paul’s prophetic statements in 2 Timothy 3:1–5:

[I]n the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

Paul began this list—which describes many societies today so well—by stating that people will be “lovers of themselves.” The love of the self instead of love for one’s own offspring is one of the great causes of not enough babies being born. Notice how Paul describes how people would love themselves, money, and pleasure, but remain unloving towards God and others—all perfect descriptions of much of the motivation for those who champion abortion. Mr. Gerald Weston insightfully described rampant selfishness as a cause of the population implosion in many parts of the world in a 2007 Tomorrow’s World article titled “Not as Many as There Used to Be”:

So why have children fallen out of favor with the present generation of Europeans, Canadians, Russians, and Japanese? No single cause explains it. Our lust for the “good life”—defined by the acquisition of material things—has deceived us into becoming too busy, too self-absorbed, and too self-occupied. In short, we have become too selfish to want to be tied down with “rug rats” and “ankle-biters.” Today’s adults have chosen their own toys over children and their toys (emphasis added).

We live in an age where some of the most sacred mantras are “my rights,” “my body,” and “my choice,” repeatedly chanted to the powerful and popular false god referred to as “Me” and “I.” Horrifyingly, millions of unborn babies are sacrificed to this god, not very unlike ancient sacrifices to the pagan god Molech. The way of selfishness, of getting more for oneself before giving to others, is the opposite of God’s way, which teaches the way of responsibility, giving, and out-flowing concern (Philippians 2:3–5).

May all Christians pray often, “Your kingdom come,” asking God for Jesus Christ to return soon—to crush this modern form of child sacrifice and restore the love of parents for their precious babies.

To learn more about the deterioration of Western culture and morality, you can order our free DVD “Culture in Crisis” or the Tomorrow’s World special report The Population Implosion: The West in Decline.