Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
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Government admits under-population threat to National Insurance

London, 1 August 2002--The British government has admitted for the first time that the decline in births may threaten National Insurance.

In a parliamentary answer on Tuesday, work and pensions minister Baroness Hollis said that the current ratio of 3.4 working people for every retired person will have fallen to around 2.4 by the year 2030, and that "an increase in the birth rate would help to reduce any future demographic pressure on the National Insurance Fund."

SPUC general secretary Paul Tully commented: "This is perhaps the first realisation by this Government that the decline in births, which has been caused by the culture of abortion and population control, threatens the welfare state."

Mr Tully noted that "the United Nations Population Division has estimated that, if the current decline in births continues, the UK will need around 1.2 million immigrants per year to prevent an increase in the ratio between working people and the retired.¹

"Abortion and other measures designed to cut the birth-rate are still being promoted and funded by the government. Such policies should be urgently reversed. Policies designed to support and reward larger families are long overdue. Old age pensions are being jeopardised by current policies", Mr Tully warned.

"The shifting age structure of the population shows that abortion is destructive not only of defenceless human life in the womb, but of the family, the economy and social well-being.

"Nevertheless, the government continues to promote and defend abortion, as Hazel Blears, minister for public health, put forward the controversial view that abortion 'is safer than carrying a pregnancy to term'.²

"This is a classic example of disjointed government. Mrs Blears argues that abortion is better than childbirth while her colleague Baroness Hollis acknowledges that a sustained long-term increase in the birth-rate is needed to avert a National Insurance crisis," said Mr Tully.

1. Replacement migration: is it a solution to declining and ageing populations?
2. House of Commons written answers 24 July 2002