Of all the hysterical alarms that have been sounded over the years, none has fizzled quite so dramatically as the overpopulation scare.

If you are of a certain age, you may remember an apocalyptic book titled The Population Bomb (1968), which predicted worldwide famine due to overpopulation.

But authors Paul and Anne Ehrlich were dead wrong. As in 180 degrees off, completely mistaken, and fulla hooey. Fact is, birth rates are plummeting around the world, raising serious questions about the future of our species. Watch here.

According to the United Nations, almost half of the world’s population lives in countries with a total fertility rate (TFR) below 2.1 births per woman, which means, in simple terms, that people are dying faster than they are reproducing.

In Singapore, where the TFR has fallen to just 1.26 children per woman, the government is spending billions to encourage people to procreate, including parental-leave programs, tax rebates, and baby bonus gifts of $8,000 for the first and second child, and $10,000 for every subsequent birth.

Here in the United States, where the TFR has sunk to 1.9, we’re slowly waking up to this reality.

For a variety of reasons, including some that are purely economic, we need to encourage and incentivize our young people to wed and procreate. This means promoting the formation of nurturing families, wherein motherhood is elevated to its proper place of honor and fathers encouraged to fulfill their God-given responsibility to love and support their families. It means encouraging women who are pregnant and considering an abortion to choose life instead, assisting them by every means possible, on through birth and the decisions that follow.

We were much encouraged this week to hear that Nancy Mace, who represents our district in the U.S. House of Representatives, has endorsed H.R. 2375, which supports mothers “who are considering placing or have placed a child for adoption.” This is a good first step. But there is much more that lawmakers, media influencers, churches and other non-profit organizations can do to encourage the formation of healthy, procreating families.

BABIES “R” US!