Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Reduce the Birth Rate to Control Climate Change

Happy New Year!

Yep, I’m a little behind the curve. Valentine’s Day lurks right around the corner!

And, if you’re not kicking off the season of love in a pissed-off state over climate change, you’re not paying attention. Check it out: all our coastal areas are sinking under rising water, meaning losses of billions of dollars of real estate. Not only that, but borders all over the world are being challenged by victims of ecological disasters. Land. They’re not making any more of it and, in fact, we’re losing ground.

All the wars in all history can be traced back to competition for land. And, as hard as we try to regulate the rules, the competition is really un-governable. In my rural neighborhood, the latest contests are being fought by the solar industry looking for thousands of Midwestern acres in purchases and easements. As land, food and clean air become more precious, the US political system is mired down with incompetence and lies.

So, as always, it’s up to us. You and I, dear friends, are responsible for the mess the planet’s in. We drove the big cars and built the big houses and no amount of so-called policy can pull us out of this carbon-built nose dive. Here’s what we can do:

First, last and foremost, we need to get the population bomb under control. In the United States, births per woman have been steadily decreasing since settlement. The UN says that we add about 200,000 people per day to the planet’s load. That’s the difference between 350,000 births and 150,000 deaths. No wonder we’re crowding into the habitats of every other creature.

Still, the US birth rate now is down. It’s estimated at 1.6 children per woman. Not low enough to make up for totals from other nations, but planet-wise the declining rate is great news! I hear friends complaining that they want grandchildren, and there are options to get your dose of kiddos: volunteer at a local day-care center, become a teacher’s aide, teach a Sunday School class.

This year, my number one resolution is to support clinics that offer voluntary sterilization of men (vasectomies) and women (tubal ligations) and my other No. 1 resolution is to encourage friends who want to stay child-free. Planned Parenthood is a go-to place for voluntary sterilization in some communities and they can help folks find a provider if they don’t provide it themselves. One great thing about voluntary sterilization is that it gets women off the pill. That saves money for young women in the long run.

Bringing down the birth rate should be a national priority with voluntary sterilization paid for by a government that wants to fix climate change. Putting tax money into voluntary sterilization will save money in the long run. Want to get rid of subsidized dental care, health care, food? Many school districts are coping with 100% of kids in the free-lunch program. And, as we learned in the pandemic, school food is sometimes the only food a kid gets.

Moms are under tremendous pressure, especially young, impoverished moms. That explains why, in the majority of cases, abortions are sought by women that are already mothers, perhaps overwhelmed by the work (or the expense) of the job. The CDC reported in 2019 that 60% of women seeking abortion have at least one child. That number has been steadily increasing.

When these women are asked why they’ve chosen to abort, the answer is usually that they want to be able to concentrate on the child or children they already have. The modern tendency for women to wait and establish careers before marrying means that those moms are older. Having been out in the world, it’s hard to adjust to a life in child care. The pandemic, which forced many parents of both sexes to stay home, has also taken the romance out of days without a commute. One report shows that 55% of stay-at-home women feel they are burned out— “always” or “frequently.”

One of the major ways to reduce the birth rate is to give women meaningful options. Fulfilling careers keep many women’s lives on-track and so do life-long passions for learning or meaningful pursuits in our communities of an art, a craft, a hobby. Humans are creative, we are born that way, and we thrive when we follow our desires.

For the last years, all of us—politically left and right—have been obsessing over the abortion issue and the planet is the loser. We need to move on and admit that abortion is the worst form of birth control and that there are real solutions available. Tamping down the birth rate is the number one thing Americans can do to reverse the climate change. It is outrageous that we think we can keep building human population forever.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen @gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, March 1, 2023

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