COVID Economic Shutdowns Will Lead to a Half-Million Fewer Births In 2021

Fall out from the overreaching reaction governments took in handling the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to 500,000 fewer births in the U.S. in 2021, according to research from the Brookings Institute.

The research, partly based on what happened following the 2007-2009 recession, forecasts between 300,000 to 500,000 fewer births in the U.S. next year, compared with a drop of 44,172 the pervious year. Its analysis states that with weaker job prospects comes less child birth.

“Women will have many fewer babies in the short term, and for some of them, a lower total number of children over their lifetimes,” the Brookings Institute said in a June report.

The analysis points to evidence that shows that women whose husbands lose their jobs at some point during their marriage ultimately have fewer children, suggesting that “transitory changes in economic conditions lead to changes in birth rates.”

It goes on to state:

If people are simply timing their fertility with the business cycle, then the years after an economic downturn will see a relative increase in birth rates, such that women’s total completed fertility might largely be unchanged. However, to the extent that delayed fertility results in lower total fertility for some women, then the observed reductions in current period births will reflect reductions in the total number of births. Furthermore, if shocks to economic conditions prove to be persistent, then changes in birth rates will be as well. A deeper and longer lasting recession will then mean lower lifetime income for some people, which means that some women will not just delay births, but they will decide to have fewer children.

Federal figures released in May show that the U.S. birth rate is already at an all-time low as American women had just 3.75 million babies in 2019, down 1% from the prior year. The general fertility rate fell 2% to 58.2 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, the lowest level since the government began tracking the figure in 1909.

Since the pandemic began some clinics have recorded a 50% jump in requests for birth control and a 40% increase in requests for Plan B, further suggesting women are delaying child birth due specifically to the current COVID hysteria.

As Steve Watson of Infowars reports:

Analysts say this will have a long and profound impact on the economy for many years to come, as the US could be falling into a so called ‘Fertility trap’ where there are fewer women around to have babies, resulting in smaller families, and low population growth reducing economic growth.

All of this results in increased pessimism and a downward spiral that is difficult to break.

It will also mean that in the near future there will be a huge mismatch between the amounts of younger and older people in the country.

Indeed, by 2034 Americans over age 65 are expected to outnumber those under 18 for the first time in the history of the nation.

Unless it is stopped now, the COVID madness, the lockdowns, the panic, the social engineering will not only causing irrevocable damage to our collective psyche, societal morale, and cultural richness, it will also destroy future prosperity and literally deny life to millions along the way.

Indeed, the U.S. is in a troubling economic situation as small businesses nation wide have been decimated, not only by the COVID-19 virus, but the reaction by many states that forced their closures in name of keeping people safe from a virus with a 99.5+% survival rate for people in general good health under the age of 50.

The service industry has been particularly destroyed with Yelp reporting that 61% of restaurants have permanently shutdown.

Businesses in the retail and nightlife categories also saw more than half of state forced closures become permanent.

Last week’s jobs numbers showed that jobless claims rose for the second straight week, to 778,000, as the U.S. is coming off some of the worse job data since the Great Depression.

As winter approaches and state governments continue to enforce devastation economic shutdowns, the economic situation for many American’s can be expected to remain bleak. This of course, equating to the devastation of birth rates that remain well below the population replacement rate.

Steve Watson of Infowars asks a very striking question:

“…perhaps that was the endgame all along?”

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Joseph Jankowski is the Editor-at-Large for Planet Free Will. His works have been published by major news publications such as ZeroHedge.com and Infowars.com.