NOREEN: Tough times always lead to birth control

A story last week reported that one of the results of the recession is a higher number of abortions and vasectomies.

Some readers suggested online that the story was evidence of the degeneration of Western society, proof of a culture that has devalued the family.

Rubbish.

Ever since we became bipeds, humans have exercised birth control when confronted by economic hard times. Virtually all of us, including those in the pro-life community, support birth control.

It's the methods we disagree about. The Catholic Church opposes contraception but gives birth control advice, including the "rhythm" method.

"I didn't live through the Great Depression," one reader wrote, "but I bet that women kept their babies and found a way to manage albeit difficult. Then again, families were more intact and people relied more on family and community than they do now. This just shows how much our society has degenerated."

Whether society has degenerated is a debate for another day, but increased birth control during a recession is not a sign of it.

"This is how we've always reacted," said Sarah Hautzinger, professor of anthropology at Colorado College.

Hautzinger noted that "it's very clear that until 20,000 years ago we couldn't have children as close together." When hunter-gatherer cultures transformed, we became more sedentary and began to grow our own crops. The more dependable diet meant mankind could, well, go forth and multiply.

That reader who mentioned the Great Depression was drawing the wrong conclusions but was on the right track. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of births in the United States dropped in 1931, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936 and 1939 - long before birth control pills or Roe v. Wade.

People couldn't afford to have more children, so they didn't. Their decision had everything to do with common sense and nothing to do with the degeneration of society.

Then came World War II. There were modest birth increases in 1941, 1942 and 1943, followed by decreases in 1944 and 1945. Everybody knows what happened in the 1950s: the post-war baby boom.

In most of the ‘60s, part of the ‘70s and most of the ‘90s, births dropped again.

Why? In developed nations there is no longer an incentive  for having big families.

At both Memorial and Penrose-St. Francis systems, births in the last six months declined compared with the same period a year ago.
But life can blossom in the coldest of times.

Montanans joke that they get 10 months of winter and two months of relatives; the longer the winter, the more relatives you're going to have.

Perhaps after Friday's weather, El Paso County will have a boomlet nine months from now.

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