In Asia, a region encompassing over 3.6 billion people as of mid-2000, dramatic demographic shifts are occurring with an intensity unseen since ancient times. Over the past half-century, the population in this area multiplied by a factor of 2.5, rising by nearly 2.2 billion. However, the great twentieth-century demographic boom is largely over in East Asia. Over the past three decades, Asia and Eurasia have experienced pervasive and dramatic declines in fertility levels, with rates dropping between 40 to 60%. Sub-replacement fertility is increasingly the norm, affecting every country in East Asia except Mongolia, as well as Singapore and Thailand in Southeast Asia, and Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan in South and Central Asia. Some countries, like Russia, are even experiencing population contraction, recording more deaths than births annually over the past decade. This sweeping fertility decline means it is no longer accurate to speak of unprecedented population growth in the region. For instance, in 1975, Russia's population was nearly twice as large as Pakistan's, but by 2025, Pakistan is projected to be just over twice as populous as Russia. These demographic changes are bound to influence power configurations in Asia and around the world in the coming years.

Depopulation arises as populations experience sharp birth rate declines that function as reliable predictors of future social and economic conditions. Russia confronts demographic disaster through a combination of plummeting births and elevated mortality, resulting in an annual population loss of 700,000 and a projected drop from 146 million to between 80 and 100 million by 2050. High abortion rates, once reaching 10 to 12 million annually, accelerate this internal destruction, prompting government subsidies of $55 monthly for a first child and $110 for a second to reverse the trend. Japan faces a parallel though less extreme shift, with half its population projected to be too old for productive work by 2050, leaving insufficient workers to sustain national output. Similar native birth rate drops afflict England, Wales, Spain, and Italy, where abortion rates remain elevated and leaders identify the core remedy as altering attitudes, particularly among women, to restore the priority of family formation. In the United States these patterns intersect with aggressive population control measures, including abortion, that erode the consumer and worker base essential for sustained economic growth. Without a prolonged baby boom spanning forty to fifty years, lost economic expansion becomes permanent and reverberates across generations. Abortion operates like a cancer within the larger fabric of factors that guarantee downturns, transforming what appears as a debt crisis into a death crisis. Capitalist systems require continuous stimulation through product cycles, advertising, and credit manipulation to avoid recession, yet shrinking consumer numbers render such efforts ineffective, as seen in Japan's near-zero interest rates. Political support for abortion and related policies that undermine marriage and family further entrenches these trends, risking radical societal transformation and diminished regard for liberties in favor of dependency.