The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Teacher, pastor, author and father Voddie Baucham addresses this question in his post “Is An Economic Downturn A Good Reason to Stop Having Kids?”

“The news has not been encouraging lately. Between job losses, bankruptcies, and government takeovers, it is hard to be optimistic about the future from a financial standpoint. Even China appears more capitalistic than America these days (see here). As a result, many Americans are making very hard choices. There are even commercials on television depicting families sitting around the dinner table talking about difficult decisions they must make and dreams they must defer. My family and I have had similar discussions as I have had a few events canceled on account of ‘the economy’. Things are indeed tough.

One of the overlooked consequences of the current economic downturn is the increasing number of people who have decided to forego having children. All over the western world people are deciding that now is not the time to get pregnant. As a result, the vasectomy industry is experiencing an economic boom. As evidence of this, there was a recent article in Bio-Medicine titled, ‘With the Economy Down, Vasectomy Rates Are Up.’ The author notes that, ‘Doctors around the United States are reporting a sharp increase in the number of vasectomies performed since the economy soured last year.’ The numbers are actually quite astonishing. One article reported more than a thirty percent increase in vasectomy rates in Canada. Things are even worse in some parts of the United States.

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I thank God that my ancestors who were slaves (by the way, that’s worse than an economic downturn) bore children in spite of their difficulties. Had they adopted today’s mindset, there would be no descendants of slaves alive in America today. We would all have been ‘prevented’ in the name of ‘prudence’.”