Sex is Essential, Kids Aren’t
Thirty percent of German women are childless--the highest proportion of any country in the world. And it's intentional. Why? Because they can be. Free will, baby. A professor of psychology examines what this trend augurs for conservatives who wring their hands at the thought of people enjoying sex outside the context of procreation.Thirty percent of German women are childless–the highest proportion of any country in the world. And it’s intentional. Why? Because they can be. Free will, baby. A professor of psychology examines what this trend augurs for conservatives who wring their hands at the thought of people enjoying sex outside the context of procreation.
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THE GERMAN PUBLIC was recently shocked to learn that 30% of “their” women are childless ? the highest proportion of any country in the world. And this is not a result of infertility; it’s intentional childlessness.
Demographers are intrigued. German nationalists, aghast. Religious fundamentalists, distressed at the indication that large numbers of women are using birth control.
And evolutionary biologists (including me) are asked, “How can this be?” If reproduction is perhaps the fundamental imperative of natural selection, of our genetic heritage, isn’t it curious ? indeed, counterintuitive ? that people choose, and in such large numbers, to refrain from participating in life’s most pressing event?
The answer is that intentional childlessness is indeed curious ? but in no way surprising. It is also illuminating, because it sheds light on what is perhaps the most notable hallmark of the human species: the ability to say no ? not just to a bad idea, an illegal order or a wayward pet but to our own genes.
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Immigration restrictions and a perception that the U.S. has fewer economic opportunities than it did a decade ago also adds to the decline.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price (pictured) and other top Trump appointees are outspoken opponents of federal funding for birth control, advocating abstinence rather than contraception.
People like Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon are doomed to disappointment if they think white birthrates can fuel the country’s economic growth.
Two new reports show that pregnancy-related deaths and severe obstetrical complications rose as the state slashed funding for family planning, but researchers and state officials say more information is needed to understand the trend.
A woman giving birth in America is more than twice as likely to die as a woman in Saudi Arabia or China.
Looking for something to put things into perspective? Check out this real-time map to remind you how transient life is, but also, how quickly the world is becoming populated.
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