The recent death of Paul Ehrlich (1932–2026), that master of anti-natalist propaganda, should cause us to consider the far-reaching consequences of his doctrine. As the author of The Population Bomb, (Note: all page references given below refer to this work) written in 1968, Ehrlich helped shape the disastrous demographic policies which many countries around the world are currently scrambling to reverse.
by Kathy Clubb
Among his predictions was the frightening spectre of overpopulation and world-wide famine to be experienced in the 1970s. By tying food availability to increasing population, Ehrlich successfully sowed enough fear into the academics of his day to ensure that his message would be taken up and disseminated into the unsuspecting community at large.
Contraception
Central to Ehrlich’s policies for population control was contraception; this was to be subsidised by the government and especially was to be made available to the poor.
He lauded the U.S. government’s multi-million-dollar funding of the supply and research of contraception during the 1960s, saying that, until that time, the government had spent as much on family-planning as it had on “rat control” (p. 85).
Perhaps the Freudian slip reveals the disdain Ehrlich had for human fertility.
He even suggested that some form of sterilisation agent could be added to the water or food supply, writing that “doses of the antidote would be carefully rationed by the government to produce the desired population size” (p. 131).
Ehrlich singled out the Catholic Church for its stance against contraception, mentioning the controversy elicited by the 1968 papal document, Humanae Vitae. He noted,
“The announcement of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae was greeted by a great wave of protest from within the Catholic Church. This dissent was not limited to lay people; it existed throughout the clergy as far up into the hierarchy as the rank of cardinal.” (p. 136)
In The Population Bomb, he praised U.S. federal bills aimed at limiting families to two children and legalising abortion. Although the former thankfully never came to fruition, the latter was eventually to be realised with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision of 1973.
Abortion
Ehrlich deemed legal abortion a sign of progress in the fight to stop population growth. He praised state abortion laws — already one-third of the American states had legalised abortion by the time his book appeared (p. 89).
He was at pains to ensure that scientists indoctrinate the populace with the notion that a newly- conceived zygote is in no way the same as a fully-formed foetus. He said: “They must point out the biological absurdity of equating a zygote (the cell created by joining of sperm and egg) or fetus (unborn child) with a human being.” (p. 138)
By every metric, this goal has been achieved, perhaps beyond his wildest dreams. Readers may recall attempts by the UK Guardian newspaper in (October 18, 2022), to show what “a real pregnancy looks like” in the first trimester. An accompanying image shows white fibres with the caption, “Tissue from five weeks of pregnancy to nine weeks”:
By contrast to anti-natalist propaganda, a science-based Baby Life Begins diagram shows what a child at five weeks’ gestation actually looks like. (Click here for the video version)
Demographics and population control
Unsurprisingly, Ehrlich praised China’s attempts to halt the growth of its population. He lauded its one-child program, citing the “very strong social and political pressures also are exerted to limit
amilies to a maximum of two children…” (p. 206), while failing to mention that those “very strong pressures” include forced abortion — even in the third trimester — as well as forced sterilisation.
Ehrlich also praised the early efforts of Japan to curb its population through the legalisation of abortion, which he said was “a highly effective weapon in the armory of population control”. Through its anti-natalist agenda, Japan was able to halve its birth rate, but it later realised the demographic impact of a falling birth rate and tried to reverse course.
Ehrlich condemned this policy change, writing that “one can only hope that young Japanese couples have more sense than their government does” (p. 84). It would seem his confidence in Japan’s younger generation was not misplaced: a recent poll shows that 60 per cent of young Japanese are planning never to have children.
Like the Japanese authorities, many nations are discovering that their efforts to halt population growth were ill-advised. Even the ultra-progressive leaders at the United Nations acknowledge there is a problem with declining populations. Yet, thanks in large part to the efforts of Paul Ehrlich, they are unable to devise a way to encourage women to have more babies.
The ‘bright side’ of global famine
According to Paul Ehrlich and the scientists he cited, the optimum global population limit was around 1 billion citizens. He thought the earth possibly “had a chance” if a population of four to five billion could be maintained (p. 157).
Yet, for all his dire predictions of global famine, Ehrlich was remarkably upbeat about the consequences of such an event. In fact, he believed human tragedy of such a scale could actually serve his agenda. He wrote:
“Indeed, even if the worst happens, short of the end of civilization, efforts toward solving the population problem may not be in vain. Suppose we do not prevent massive famines. Suppose there are widespread plagues. Suppose a billion people perish. At least if we have called enough attention to the problem, we may be able to avoid a repetition of the whole mess. We must make it impossible for people to blame the calamity on too little food or technological failures or ‘acts of God’. They must at least face the essential cause of the problem — overpopulation.” (p. 158)
The role of academia
Ehrlich’s influence points to the role played by universities and other academic institutions in furthering anti-Christian agendas such as population control. Techno-Marxism’s “long march” through the institutions chose those platforms for good reason: it is difficult for spineless politicians and other policy-makers to dissent from apparently well-researched conclusions being thrust on them by the intelligentsia.
According to the pro-life author, “Alyosha” (a pseudonym), at his Between Two Ages Substack account,
“Real policy isn’t debated in X threads, YouTube clips of normie legacy news shouting matches, or in the campaign rhetoric of elections. It is formulated in dry academic literature, incubated in the classrooms of elite universities, and ultimately executed through the quiet, logistical restructuring of society.”
His conclusion reminds us that Ehrlich was not alone in his calls for population control: he was simply one of the loudest voices at a particular moment in history:
“The core objective of the transnational elite has remained remarkably consistent for over half a century: the scientific management, reduction, and absolute control of the human population.”
Our greatest asset
As most Christians acknowledge, a nation’s greatest asset is its children, especially those raised in stable households by both of their biological parents. While Ehrlich spread the lie that the reproductive act should be separated from its consequence — procreation — the future belongs to those who can integrate both, welcoming children as gifts from God and trusting in Him to provide for the needs of their families.
This article first appeared at Endeavour Forum.
Kathy Clubb is an Australian writer who home-educated her children for 30 years. She has written on Catholic and pro-life issues at The Remnant Newspaper, LifeSiteNews, Fidelity magazine, Family Life International, Endeavour Forum and more. Kathy is the founder and editor of Pax Orbis.
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