Progressives freaking out over uptick in birth rates among families earning money from the fracking industry

In March of this year, PJ Media published a piece about a report from the Congressional Budget Office, which found that more babies will be born as a result of the American Health Care Act, because the bill cuts Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood. Strangely, a couple of leftists objected to the idea of more babies in the world.

Vox’s Sarah Kliff responded to the CBO report by warning that defunding Planned Parenthood would have a “severe impact” and leave “patients little options to seek similar care elsewhere.” Vox’s Emily Crockett also responded to the CBO report, warning “if this bill passes, there’s no guarantee that women will have any good options for private insurance coverage of abortion – a procedure that, out of pocket, can cost from $500, for an earlier abortion, to tens of thousands of dollars, for a later one.”

If these leftists objected to the idea of more babies being born as a result of the ACHA, then they better hold onto their hats. A recent piece on DailyMail.com explains how fracking is already leading to more births in specific fracking zones, despite the fact that overall fertility rates have dipped slightly.

According to economists at the University of Maryland, every extra $1,000 that was earned at a fracking site resulted in an additional six births per 1,000 women. The connection between fracking zones and birth rates comes after the release of a major CDC report, which explained that fertility rates are generally decreasing as more and more women are choosing to delay having a child until their 30s or 40s.

The authors of the CDC report, Melissa Kearney and Riley Wilson, say that families in rural areas of Texas, Oklahoma, California and Pennsylvania are most likely reproducing at a faster rate because of the feeling of financial security they enjoy as a result of being involved in the fracking business.

Interestingly enough, however, Kearney and Wilson did not find that this baby boom was in any way connected to an uptick in the number of marriages. The report’s authors explained that this is most likely because young parents today are willing to raise children outside of marriages so long as they are financially secure enough, and confident enough, to do so

While some warn that the decrease in the overall birth rate may result in a potential “baby crisis,” Professor Donna M. Strobino of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health says that our country has nothing to worry about. “What this is is a trend of women becoming more educated and more mature,” said Strobino, who teaches population, family and reproductive health. “I’m not sure that’s bad.”

It’s definitely strange how liberals like the two Vox contributors previously mentioned react to news of more babies coming into the world. Why anyone would even be skeptical about the thought of a gradual increase in birth rates is anyone’s guess, but the most probable explanation most likely has to do with the left’s longstanding commitment to a woman’s “right” to abort her child.

Liberals and Planned Parenthood go together like peanut butter and jelly. While they will most likely never admit it — nor will they ever answer any direct questions about it — the left believes that more babies coming into the world means that Planned Parenthood will become more and more irrelevant. The truth is that the progressives don’t simply believe in a woman’s right to get an abortion if they choose to do so; they want the abortion industry to remain alive and well, because if it doesn’t remain alive and well, it’s a sign that their radical agenda is no longer resonating with the people.

Sources include:

Dailymail.co.uk

PJMedia.com