Banning contraception is probably certainly a losing political argument. The Pill and condoms are never going to be recriminalized. That does not mean that pro-lifers and other social conservatives should avoid making a case against contraception in general — their deletorious health effects, their seperating of sex and reproduction, the abortifacient nature of chemical ‘contraceptives’ and many more arguments — or against government promotion of contraception. The Left says the state is merely making the birth control pill, condoms, and other contraceptives available to people, but when the government gets behind a product or idea, it is clearly an endorsement of the idea or product. The New York Sun says this is a mistake. Last week they editorialized that contraception is not in the best interests of the United States because the U.S. has a people problem. To be precise, they do not have enough people. Contraception prevents America from getting what it needs: more people. Free market economies need consumers and some might even say they need a growing pool of consumers. To fill empty homes after the housing bubble broke, you need more homeowners. If companies want to sell more and more stuff, they need a growing pool of people to buy gadgets, clothes, music, books, furniture, or whatever. As the Sun editorial says, “The fact of life is that contraception is bad for growth.” The Sun points out that the government policy is not about individual choices, but removing “the balance of incentives and instead to steer the market toward contraception.” Aside from the issues of morality, religious freedom, and government bullying, which are legitimate concerns, there is an important argument not being made: contraception is bad for a country because it’s bad for the economy. The Sun concludes its editorial: “there is also an uplifting argument to be made in respect of growth and population that would illuminate the absurdity of making a priority of subsidizing the preventing the conception of more Americans.” Let’s hear that argument from Republican leaders, churchmen, and economists. Julian Simon called people the world’s greatest resource; to put it in the bluntest utilitarian terms, why on Earth would a President deny his country such a resource?
