Insider memo proposes U.S. depopulation measures
It’s no shocker that over the last several decades our society has seen the erosion of the nuclear family and a precipitous decline in the birth rate. The U.S. birth rate went from 24.3 births per 1,000 people in 1950 to only 12.0 births per 1,000 last year, a 50-percent drop. The rate has fallen 13 percent just in the last 15 years. Since 2007, the U.S. fertility rate has been below replacement level.
As our culture shifts and we see the breakdown of the family unit, one worthwhile question is whether any of the societal changes we see today were foreseen and possibly even pre-planned. One document that suggests this is the somewhat obscure Jaffe memo, produced by Planned Parenthood, which outlines proposed depopulation measures, including such extremes as compulsory abortion and compulsory sterilization, and some less extreme ideas we have seen play out in society over the last 50 years or so.
“The ‘memo’ is a synthesis of a number of ideas then in wide circulation, both inside and outside of Planned Parenthood. Because of its concise summary of these ideas, the memo serves as a useful illustration of a whole range of disconcerting policy considerations. The memo itself indicates that it was ‘derived primarily’ from people such as M. Young, W. Shockley, L. Day, and others,” writes Dr. Anthony Horvath on his website, Jaffememo.com. It’s worth taking a look to see what ideas were being proposed at that time of the memo, and which have come to fruition.
The Jaffe memo is named after Frederick Jaffe (1925-1978). At the time of the letter, he was a vice president for Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). He established the Center for Family Planning Program Development, which eventually separated from PPFA and became the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.
Jaffe wrote a letter dated March 11, 1969, to Dr. Bernard Berelson (1912-1979), of New York City’s Population Council. His letter was in response to an inquiry from Berelson seeking “ideas on necessary and useful activities relevant to formation of population policy.” Jaffe’s eight-page letter ends with a table showing “proposed measures to reduce fertility, by university or selectivity of impact in the U.S.” The table includes four categories of ways to reduce fertility. The first category is “social constraints.” The social constraints listed are as follows: “Restructure family: Postpone or avoid marriage. Alter image of ideal family size. Compulsory education of children. Encourage increased homosexuality. Educate for family limitation. Fertility control agents in the water supply. Encourage women to work.”
Just to examine a few of those, marriage has certainly been postponed in this generation. In the 1960s, the median age for men when they first got married was 23. It was 20 for women. Now, the median age is 30 for men and 29 for women.
When it comes to the ideal family size, Americans’ opinions radically shifted in the late 60s and 70s. Gallup has been asking Americans what their ideal family size is since 1936. From 1967 to 1977, the percentage of Americans who preferred a large family (three or more children) fell from 70 percent to 36 percent. It has somewhat rebounded since then (was 45 percent in 2023), but a majority of Americans still prefer a smaller family.
Skipping ahead a few bullet points in the memo, one is “encourage women to work.” The percentage of women working outside the home, whether by necessity or choice, dramatically increased from the time of the writing of the Jaffe memo. From 1970 to 2000, the labor force participation rate for women went from 43.3% to 60.2%. Since 2000, it has held steady. Continuing on, the memo lists economic deterrents/incentives to reduce fertility, including: “Modify tax policies: Reduce/eliminate paid maternity leave or benefits… Chronic depression. Require women to work and provide few child care facilities.”
These points have not been fully actualized. However, maternity leave and benefits have been reduced. CNBC reported that, in 2022, organizations offering employees paid maternity leave dropped to 35% from 53% in 2020 (per the Society for Human Resource Management). Also, it’s no secret that depression rates continue to rise. According a poll conducted by Gallup last year, 29% of U.S. adults reported having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime. That is up nearly 10 percentage points from 2015.
Skipping to the part about providing few child care facilities, the U.S. is facing a significant child care shortage. Child Care Aware released a 2022 report noting a disparity between demand and supply in child care. In 2022, 12.3 million children required care while there were only 8.7 million slots were available in licensed child care centers, equaling a gap of 3.6 million spots. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, also reported that as many as 100,000 Americans have been forced to stay home from work each month because of child care problems.
Another category of policy considerations in the memo is “social controls,” including “Compulsory abortion for out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Compulsory sterilization of all who have two children except for a few who would be allowed three. Confine childbearing to only a limited number of adults. Stock certificatetype permits for children. Housing policies: a) Discouragement of private home ownership. b) Stop awarding public housing based on family size.”
Finally, the memo lists “measures predicated on existing motivation to prevent unwanted pregnancy.” These include: “Payments to encourage sterilization. Payments to encourage contraception. Payments to encourage abortion. Abortion and sterilization on demand. Allow harmless contraceptives to be distributed nonmedically. Make contraception truly available and accessible. Improve maternal health care, with family planning a core element.
Spacing limitations prevent me from diving into the rest of the memo, but it should at least call into question the real intents and motivations of Planned Parenthood. As usual, there is much under the surface we don’t see. For more analysis of the Jaffe memo as well as the sources from which Jaffe derived his material, visit Jaffememo.com.
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