The Fertility Crisis Will Not Be Solved by Economics Alone

The West’s demographic dearth is capturing the attention of growing numbers of public officials. Speaking on October 14 after a meeting with Italian president Sergio Mattarella, Pope Leo XIV expressed concern about fertility decline, endorsing economic proposals—such as tax breaks for young families—to counter those trends. Separately, at an October 22 Washington meeting marking the fifth anniversary of the Geneva Consensus Declaration (a multilateral statement that there is no international right to abortion), Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjártó highlighted what he called his government’s comprehensive pro-natalist tax policies. 

The pope is right to call attention to the birth dearth, but he should focus less on urging economic stimuli to promote childbearing and more on reminding people of the cultural and theological goodness of getting married and having children. This aspect has been lost even among Catholics.

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