China’s Birth Rate Crisis: A Self-Imposed Problem with No Easy Fix

Fr. Shenan Boquet discusses China’s severe birth rate crisis and why efforts to reverse population decline are failing. Drawing from decades of pro-life work, Fr. Boquet connects China’s demographic collapse to deep cultural, moral, and structural issues also seen across Western nations.

The conversation explores the legacy of China’s one-child policy, the rise of IVF as a proposed “solution” to infertility and low birth rates, and the shared misconceptions driving U.S. and Chinese policymakers.

Fr. Boquet argues that technological fixes and financial incentives cannot solve what is fundamentally a cultural and moral crisis rooted in the loss of a correct understanding of marriage, family, and human dignity.

Topics Include:

- How China’s One-Child Policy, forced abortions, sterilizations, and neighbor-surveillance culture created a lasting anti-child mindset
- Why government “solutions” (including financial incentives, tax breaks, vouchers, and subsidized IVF) aren’t increasing birth rates
- How China and the U.S. are following the same failing playbook despite very different histories
- The growing IVF industry: moral issues, commodification of children, embryo destruction, and sex-selection
- President Trump’s 2025 IVF executive orders and what they mean for families
- Why restorative reproductive medicine, not IVF, is the ethical and effective path for couples with infertility
- How fear, secularism, delayed marriage, and the contraceptive mentality drive low birth rates in the West
- What the Church teaches about marriage, fertility, openness to life, and the rights of children
- What governments can do to support families (subsidiarity, lowering cost of living, protecting marriage)
- Why evangelization, catechesis, and authentic family culture are the real long-term solutions

If you want to understand why global birth rates are collapsing — and how to renew a true culture of life — this episode is essential.

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