Falling birth rates ought to concern us all

Sir, – Recent correspondence seems to broadly entail people or organisations who opposed abortion entirely now saying they oppose the level of demand. Meanwhile those who advocated to introduce abortion suggest it hasn’t changed much, but is now measurable.

The latter argument has much to recommend it. The effects of decriminalising something will be immediate, with a rise from an apparent rate of zero.

The destigmatisation, however, will have a slower effect presumably, with a sustained rise over years as people cease to travel for the intervention and cultural attitudes evolve.

So as to accurately surmise the trend it may be useful to look at birth rates, that is the numbers choosing not to have an abortion. Ireland has had a slowly descending birth rate, dropping about 1 per cent to 3 per cent per million of population annually, since the financial crash of 2008 and 2009. The change in legislation doesn’t seem to have had any obvious impact on the pattern. This trend is in line with most comparable countries. As portrayed on, say, the Macrotrends website, the greatest declines were in the years leading up to the referendum.