Societies that do not value human life, especially at its most vulnerable moments in the mother’s womb or in the last days, are dying (often quite literally) political entities that have lost their purpose. Destroy the family, and you don’t have much of a society.<\/p>\n\n
That’s why the following stats are so concerning: The E.U.’s fertility rate in 2022 was 1.49, well below replacement. And when compared to close to five in Africa and 3.14 in the Arab world, Europe is dying. Many European allies eliminate around three hundred human lives for every one thousand live births. The U.K. has about 330 abortions per one thousand live births; France just above three hundred, which incidentally is the same as Russia. (The U.S. is not far behind, with about two hundred abortions per one thousand live births.)<\/p>\n\n
No wonder an article in First Things concludes, “The West is killing itself.”<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3361,3495,4369,5226],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-62489","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-abortion","tax_ctp_tags-birth","tax_ctp_tags-life","tax_ctp_tags-values"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\n