Let me take a potshot guess and say that families can’t afford more kids these days, and also because mom has to work long hours now and has no time to bear and raise them?
There was an economic reason for families having a large number of kids in the past. One reason is that in an agrarian society, one needed the kids to eventually help work the farm in order to provide the additional income to grow and sustain the farm and the family or with the industrial revolution and urbanization, go to work at a young age to help support the large family. The other was the high infant and childhood mortality rate. It was not unusual for families to have 10-12 kids but a good half of them didn’t survive to adulthood. Then again, that was sometimes limited by the high rate of maternal death rates during or shortly after child birth.
Now days it is comparatively more expensive to raise kids than it was in the past and it is more of a burden what with in many families, even in two parent, intact families, both the father and mother have to work to make ends meet what with taxes and an overall higher cost of living.
Of course there are exceptions and it comes down to a matter of priorities.
A family today with a lot of kids and a traditional stay at home mom, like my niece and her husband (four little kids including a set of triplets, plus two step kids including one in college), they have to make sacrifices. They drive an old but 100% paid for used van and my niece’s husband drives a company truck and fortunately her husband is multi-talented and works on the van himself when it needs repairs or maintenance; they don’t live in a big house although they sure could use the space, they economize, buying groceries in bulk and at places like Aldi’s, BJ’s, Wal-Mart, etc, they buy kids clothes at second hand stores and consignment shops, they sell or consign the kids “gently” worn clothes and toys when they grow out of them, they don’t go out to eat, rarely go to the movies, etc. They make do with what they have and when the need to buy something they look for bargains. My niece’s husband also works many side jobs in addition to his full time job, which means he’s not around as often as he and his wife and kids would like. My niece worked from home for a time when the triplets were infants as they really needed the extra income and I’m not sure how she found time to sleep.
And my full time college student great niece who lives with her mom and step dad is an exceptional student and has some scholarships but she also works a nearly full time job to pay what her scholarships don’t cover and for her car and other living expenses and helps her mom out a lot at home with her younger sisters.
They make it all work and wouldn’t have it any other way.
My nephew and his wife on the other hand only have two kids, two girls, and don’t plan on having any more, at least for now, although my nephew would very much like to have a son. He has a very good job, making well into the 6 figures and his wife doesn’t have to work, they live in a much bigger and newer home than his sister and her husband, they drive new cars, and he recently bought a Porche, granted a used one, and last year went on a two week vacation to Italy. But they are also great parents and are raising two really great kids in a conservative and loving traditional home. I don’t see them as being materialistic or selfish for only having two kids.
One of the ways God shows His displeasure is by closing up the wombs of women in the disfavored regime.
My mother and father, who were FWIW, devout and very traditional Catholics, only had my brother and I and we were born 12 years apart, although my mother suffered a miscarriage in between. I never knew the reason for this but I am pretty sure my mother and father never used any forms of birth control. Perhaps my mother had infertility issues or they just didn’t have sex that often.
My husband and I very much wanted and desperately tried to have children but I couldn’t. Are you telling me that God was punishing me for who we elected as President, back in the 80’s, i.e. Ronald Regan? Really?