Blows below the belt have no place in what should be a serious national discussion, but this kind of response is fast becoming who we are. We dodge critical issues by labelling, ridiculing, and undermining those who attempt to bring serious concerns to the front burner, whether it be the Samoa Agreement, LGBT issues or, most recently, the matter of underpopulation.
In any society, there must be a constant replenishment of the population. The natural way to do this is for women of childbearing age to become pregnant and give birth. Generally speaking, if each female between 15 and 49 years old has two children, though it will not increase, the population will remain stable. Of course, every single female will not have a child, and some will have several. The 2.1 population replacement rate is therefore an average that takes this into consideration. Â
The Barbados birth rate has been 1.6 for a long time and this has resulted in a widening dependent sector and a shrinking productive sector that must not only carry labour force demands but also the caregiving needs of an ageing population, with little guarantee of persons to care for them as they themselves age. It is an untenable situation brought about by a multiplicity of factors, including the ironic elevation of gender ideology to matters of ‘health’, ‘dignity’ and ‘rights’.
The idea of sexual and reproductive rights has led some feminists to reject the idea of childbearing, equating this rejection with a demonstration of autonomy. Then there is the matter of homosexuality. Two men cannot reproduce; neither can two women. Transgenderism is another story. It is, literally, a dead end. The female-male transgender loses her ability to carry a child, while the male-female does not gain such an ability. There is zero possibility of new life. Â
In line with delusions of ‘progress’, Barbados legalised abortion in 1983 facilitating termination of pregnancies for females over 16 years old, for any reason, social, emotional/mental or economic, actual or foreseeable, at any stage of pregnancy. Statistics are hard to come by, but based on available reports of the Chief Medical Officer, it can be assumed that abortions at the QEH account for about 500 non-births each year. Multiply that by 40, and add the abortions conducted at private doctor’s offices and the Barbados Family Planning Association and we begin to account for thousands of the ‘missing population’.
Beyond that, some career women desire to have children but find it difficult to carve out time for pregnancy and childcare. Further, there are those females with gynaecological issues that prevent them from getting pregnant or carrying a baby to term. And of course, wearing a condom ‘correctly and consistently’ is not pregnant-friendly.
It would do us good to dispassionately examine the contributing factors that have brought us to this point, and to level-headedly make the kind of decisions that would begin to turn the situation around.
It’s time to revisit the Medical Termination of Pregnancies Act and time to reconsider the country’s stance towards normalising homosexuality and transgenderism. Sober common sense is what’s needed, not vain ideology. Much can be gained if Barbados declare itself a family-friendly country and adopt family-friendly measures that will see an increase in the population, not through the stop-gap measure of managed migration, but through a healthy, dignified, natural increase in the God-ordained way.
Dr Veronica C. EvelynÂ
