October 30, 2024
MOVCAC Contributor: Sean P. Keefe
Does anyone else find the focus on abortion by the democrat party to be suspicious? With the world on fire, our economy in shambles, our border wide open, and excess death running rampant, should terminating a pregnancy be at the top of any priority list? For the record, I am a man who has never had an abortion. I am the father of five and the grandfather of five.
At MOVCAC, we believe that every human conceived has a right to the life God implanted in them at the moment of conception.
Having said all that, the following analysis has very little to do with abortion. The inspiration for the following analysis arose when I saw Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz comparing Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden to the Nazi rally held at MSG in 1939.
Republicans tear into Tim Walz for comparing Trump’s MSG rally to Nazi event: ‘More offensive than any joke’ – New York Post October 28, 2024
I keep hearing about Reproductive Rights and I noticed that Mr. Walz was speaking behind a podium that reads “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom.”
Like so many things in this upside-down world, I couldn’t help but notice that when some people speak about Reproductive Rights or Reproductive Freedom, they are twisting the meaning of the word “Reproductive” and bending the minds of unwitting and uninformed voters to convince them that reproductive freedom is the freedom to terminate a life rather than to reproduce a life.
Reproductive is a form of the word “Reproduce:”
In previous writings, I have focused on the excess death phenomenon in our nation and our state because I believed that once my fellow Americans noticed that we were dying off at an accelerating rate, people much smarter than I would begin highlighting this and focusing on ways to mitigate this catastrophic loss of population. Below is West Virginia’s experience with total death since 2011:
Source – West Virginia Excess Deaths by County – MOVCAC
Note – In the above table, each year is compared to the previous year except for 2021. The 26.24% increase in death in 2021 is calculated using 2019 as the comparative year. It does no good to compare 2021 to the already pandemic affected 2020 data.
As I analyzed the death data published by our Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), one chart continually caught my eye:
Source – WV DHHR Vital Statistics Report 2021
As you can clearly see in the chart above, West Virginia’s birth rate always exceeded our death rate from 1925 through the late 1990s. Beginning around the year 2000, death began to equal or exceed births. In order to replace and sustain a current population, the ratio of births to deaths should equal or exceed 1.0. Any number above 1.0 means we are producing more humans than we are losing. Any number below 1.0 means that we are no longer reproducing our population. If this goes on long enough, our population will collapse.
When I saw the Reproductive Freedom placard on the podium when Tim Walz was speaking, it inspired me to write about West Virginia’s reproductive failure and how it is only exacerbating the decline in our population when compared to our accelerating death rate. As I was researching this phenomenon, I stumbled across a CDC website where birth/death ratios are meticulously maintained and reported. It is an interactive website which allows the user to select a year (from 2000 through 2022) and the birth-to-death ratio is displayed for each state. I first selected the year 2000:
Source – CDC Birth to Death Ratio by State
Alarmingly, West Virginia was the only state in our nation where the birth-to-death ratio was below 1.0. This means that West Virginia was the only state in the year 2000 where the population was not at the very least replacing itself. That was eye-opening. In the year 2000, eleven states had a ratio of over 2.0, meaning for each death a minimum of two births occurred; and all but West Virginia were replacing their population at a rate greater than 1.0 birth for every death.
I then thought I would look at 2011 (midway point of the years under analysis):
By the year 2011 Maine had joined West Virginia to be only the second state that was no longer, at the very least, replacing itself. Please note that the number of states with a ratio of greater than 2.0 had reduced from eleven to five.
I then looked at 2019 as that was the last year where our population was unburdened by the Covid pandemic:
By 2019, both West Virginia and Maine had continued to decline and Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island had joined the ranks of states no longer replacing its population. In addition, the number of states where the birth-to-death ratio was over 2.0 reduced again from five in 2011 to two in 2019.
Are we noticing a pattern yet?
I then looked at 2020:
By 2020 we were down to only Utah replacing its population at a birth-to-death ratio over 2.0. Most alarmingly, the number of states no longer at least replacing its population ballooned from five in 2019 to twenty-three in 2020.
This trend is catastrophic!
Finally, I looked at 2022:
By 2022, Massachusetts and Connecticut had recovered slightly to again record a ratio over 1.0 leaving twenty-one states still not reaching a replacement ratio.
Leaders are supposed to be smarter than us, or if not smarter, a little more experienced and wiser. Society appoints leaders so that issues like depopulation can be mitigated with policies and incentives. If we incentivize the demise of our population by redefining what it means to reproduce, we will find ourselves in a depopulating climate. If, however, we stick to the real definition of “reproduction;” we would incentivize family, fertility, and the creation of new humans.
Some may argue that we are at the beginning of the end of the baby-boomer generation and that is true. We should begin seeing an increased level of death when compared to previous years if only because so many are reaching the average life-span age. If we call 1945 the beginning of the baby-boomers, the eldest in that generation will begin to turn 80 next year. Understanding that our average life-span was reduced from 79 to 76 over the last few years, this means that many of the early baby-boomers are beginning to die from “old-age” or climate change as it is now called in some spaces (wink, wink).
However, logic tells me that if more people were born to the baby-boomer generation, then there should be more children born as that generation grows into adulthood. As long as we keep a birth-to-death ratio above 1.0, our population will not only be sustained, but it will grow.
Our own data published by DHHR shows this not to be the case. As the table below shows, our births per 1,000 population have steadily declined since its high of 28.4 in 1925 to settle at 9.6 in 2021:
How is it possible for our deaths to be increasing at an accelerating rate while our births are declining at an even greater accelerating rate? Where is the front-page news covering this at either a national, state, or local level?
Instead of creating policy to incentivize family and reproduction, we have redefined reproductive freedom to mean the right to terminate pregnancies. Not only is this backward and self-destructive, it is counter to every instinct all other life on the planet displays. Life wants to reproduce. Life wants to continue. In our current depopulation spiral, where are the politicians, academics, medical professionals, or media pundits pointing to this obvious self-destruction?
They are incentivizing illegal immigration instead of reproduction of our own citizens.
The best example of this is New York Senator Chuck Schumer. In 2022, Mr. Schumer said the quiet part out loud:
“We have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to. The only way we’re going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants, the Dreamers and all of them, because our ultimate goal is to help the Dreamers but to get a path to citizenship for all 11 million or however many undocumented there are here.”
Source – Chuck Schumer finally admits it: Democrats don’t want any real immigration law – New York Post – November 20, 2022
Perhaps this is how it is supposed to work and I’m just an idiot. Perhaps we are not supposed to focus on life, family, peace, and prosperity. We have inflation to worry about. We have wars to fund. We have governments whose politics offend us and we must overthrow their leadership. There are weapons to make, speech to censor, borders to be destroyed, and so many people who must be killed with our weapons.
Perhaps someday, I’ll find that I’m not an idiot. Perhaps someday, my fellow Americans will awaken to this political malpractice and demand that our government focus on us and our ability to sustain our culture, our prosperity, our population, and our collective soul.
If not, it was a pretty good experiment while it lasted.
Sean Keek can be contacted at [email protected]
The MOVCAC Movement, which stands for the Motivate-Organize-Volunteer Citizens Action Coalition, encourages individuals to take an active role in protecting their communities and advocating for positive change. Staying home and posting online, while sometimes useful for raising awareness, is often not enough to effect substantial change. By getting up, getting out, and joining movements like MOVCAC, you can directly engage in community actions, participate in local decision-making, and collaborate with others who share your concerns. This hands-on involvement is essential for safeguarding our nation, state, and homes from various challenges, whether they be social, or political. Active participation fosters a stronger, more resilient community and ensures that your voice is heard in matters that affect your everyday life.
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