Section:GDN 1J PaGe:1 Edition Date:190803 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 2/8/2019 17:43 cYanmaGentaYellowblac

H

ow many children should a woman

have, and when? It’s a trick question,

of course, because the answer is

nearly always “none of your damn

business”. There is no one perfect

solution to this most personal of

dilemmas, no iron rule for getting it

right, and yet that doesn’t stop the

world and its aunt seemingly having an opinion.

Young women who insist they don’t want children

are knowingly told that they’ll change their minds when

they’re older, even as they beg for sterilisations. Mothers

of only-children face years of nosy questions about

when they plan to try for another, to the eternal distress

of those who for whatever reason can’t or won’t get

pregnant again. Even sticking to the conventional two

children doesn’t make you immune to criticism, judging

by the reaction when Prince Harry let it slip that baby

Archie might only be getting one sibling; although the

Duchess of Sussex clearly can’t win with some people no

matter what she does, the idea of a couple deliberately

holding back for the sake of the planet seems to trigger

some kind of broader knee jerk hostility.

Yet somehow, despite all this incessant collective

nagging, we seem to be heading for a baby drought.

This week brought news of yet another fall in British

birthrates , and for the fi rst time they’re falling even

among immigrant mothers, whose tendency to have

larger families has for years quietly propped up the

nation’s declining fertility rates. Perhaps some of that is

down to tough economic times, with ludicrously high

house prices forcing young couples to put off having

children because they can’t aff ord the space in which

to bring them up, or even to niggling Brexit uncertainty

persuading some to wait until things feel more settled.

But it also refl ects the fact that fertility rates are

falling around the world , as the most highly educated

generation of women ever to reach childbearing age

wrestle with choices that simply weren’t open to their

grandmothers. In the US the birthrate hit a 30-year low

last year, while Japan suff ered the biggest population

decline on record. According to the UN, global

population will peak at the end of this century before

falling thereafter , transforming the way we think about

our once teeming planet. Good news for depleted natural

resources, maybe, but a red fl ag for economic growth.

There is a danger of over reacting to all this, treating

the decline in fertility like a lemming-like

plunge off the cliff rather than a fairly slow

and steady downward trend that gives

Labour should adopt a tactic from the 1930s: a popular front Paul Mason, page 3

Will public art recover from Tina Turner’s giant head? Fiona Sturges, page 4

Victoria’s Secret is out: it’s well past its sell-by date Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, page 4

The Guardian

ILLUSTRATION:

NATHALIE LEES

Saturday 3 August 2019



Falling fertility

rates are not

the business of

government

Opinion

and ideas

Gaby

Hinsliff

РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS