Peace Without Poison

From 1975 to 2009 the total fertility rate was below replacement level, going down to as low as1.6 children per woman in 1993. The government began relaxing its sterilization program in1994 so the total fertility rate could bounce back up to replacement level, lest deaths begin toexceed births. France reached replacement level fertility in 2010 and has maintained it withmathematical precision ever since.The covert depopulation program was started in 1948 by President Vincent Auriol (1947-1954),undoubtedly on the insistence of the United States and as part and parcel of the Marshall Plan. Itwas continued by all his successors: René Coty (1954-1959); General Charles de Gaulle (1959-1969), who first stopped and then restarted it; Georges Pompidou (1969-1974), who acceleratedit; Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1974-1981), who accelerated it even more; François Mitterrand(1981-1995), who slowed it down; Jacques Chirac (1995-2007), who allowed the total fertilityrate to rise back up to replacement level; Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012), who fixed it atreplacement level; and the incumbent François Hollande, who has kept it at replacement level sofar.Considering that contraceptives were illegal in France until 1968 and that even today less than aquarter of the population use contraceptives, it is clear that France has relied on covert methodsof sterilization delivered through the basic elements of life and not on contraceptives toaccomplish its demographic targets.It should be noted that China has a contraceptive prevalence rate of nearly 90% and it still needsto perform more than 13 million abortions a year for a population of 1.35 billion people,compared to France which performs 160,000 abortions a year for a population of 66 million.The number of abortions performed in China is proportionally four times higher than that ofFrance, despite France’s much lower contraceptive prevalence rate and China’s painful penaltiesfor unwanted pregnancies.The historical record shows that only 20% of all pregnancies end in abortion in France since theearly 1980s, a rate that has remained stable to this day and that cannot possible put more thanjust a dent in the fertility drop.274 | P a g e