From the story in the National Catholic Register, here:
The total fertility rate now hovers around 1.8 children per woman over her lifetime — far below the 2.1 children per woman that demographers say a nation needs to keep its population stable. ... trends are not necessarily irreversible. History has plenty of examples of religious and moral revivals, as well as religious and moral collapses, that have changed the course of their societies’ future. ... “There’s a lack of private and public policies to say to families, ‘It’s okay, having children, taking care of them, staying with them and everything is the most important bulwark of a good society,’” [Helen Alvare] said. “But it works economically, it works religiously, and it works practically.”
