Image by Martin Thomas via Flickr
with Chris Hedges
RT America on Apr 6, 2019
The fertility rate in the United States has been steadily falling, so much so that without immigration our population would be declining. This is the seventh straight year fertility rates have fallen. In 2017, the nationwide fertility rate was 1,765.5 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age—well below the rate of 2,100 births per 1,000 women necessary to keep the population stable. Only two states—South Dakota and Utah—had birth rates above replacement levels.
Policy makers are acutely aware of the birth rate decline, using coded words such as “age structure,” “dependency ratio,” and “entitlement crisis” to express their concern with an aging population, the inevitable weakening of consumer demand and a stagnant economy. Yet policy makers refuse to acknowledge the reality of women’s reproductive labor by providing adequate child care, family leave, health care, sufficient male support, and remuneration for child rearing. U.S. women, in response, have gone on a birth strike. Joining Chris Hedges to discuss this issue is Jenny Brown, author of Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight over Women’s Work and organizer with National Women’s Liberation.
From the archives:
Thirty-One Actual National Emergencies by Paul Street
Michael Parenti: The Culture Struggle
How Capitalism Controls You by The Anti-Social Socialist
Dandelion Salad 
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