Spain needs more babies - what can be done?
Spain has a problem with its demographics: since 2015 the number of deaths has exceeded the number of births - and the gap is growing from year to year. In the first six months of 2018 the birth rate sank to its lowest level since recording began in 1941, the country's National Statistics Institute reported. Spain's press finds this trend worrying and calls for measures to reverse it.
Spain's future at stake
El Mundo is alarmed by the low birth rates:
“If we want to increase the birth rate we need a national pact. The bloodletting in the population register was also a result of many of those who had moved to Spain leaving the country due to the economic crisis. ... We are not facing a demographic decrease but a collapse with grave consequences. So stopgap measures or relying on the compensation effect of mass migrant flows won't help. ... The solution is stable employment and measures to promote work-life balance and support families and maternity. Spain's future is at stake here.”
We're debating the wrong issues
In view of Spain's low birth rate ABC criticises the current discussion about euthanasia and abortion:
“We should talk about the birth rate without prejudices or fears that it will be perceived as a threat to the professional and personal autonomy of women. ... In a society like Spain's the lack of a national strategy to support the family, which is the only solid foundation for sustainable population growth, is very conspicuous. And it's lamentable that today's debates about the individual focus on legal reforms that facilitate the death of the chronically ill or incapacitated, giving the ill and their families the dangerous idea that there are lives that are troublesome and superfluous. ... A modern, mature industrial society like Spain should not put up so many obstacles to life.”