There have been a lot of upsetting things that have been happening in this country lately. Honestly for that matter the world as well. All of these things deserve their own time and attention but today I would like to focus on one that I feel I can speak on personally.
Depending on where you are in the world you many or many not know about the United States Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v Wade that was released last week. This opinion is a big deal because if this becomes the final opinion of the court guaranteed access to safe reproductive healthcare and abortion for women all over this country is gone. I don't want to dissect all the specifics of Roe v Wade and it's impacts in this specific post. Honestly I'm not the right person to do so, there are many many better woman who are writing about this you should be reading instead.
What I do want to talk about is one specific point that, as a white man of reproductive age, I am qualified to speak on. In the draft opinion cited there is this notion that access to reproductive healthcare for women is somehow the cause for a "low supply of domestic infants". Now why this is of any concern of the court I have no idea but putting that aside let's break down what this is saying and what is in fact happening. Basically the court is saying that in it's opinion women shouldn't have guaranteed access to safe reproductive healthcare because we're not having enough children. This makes the heinous assumption that reproductive healthcare is the cause for this situation we find ourselves in, which it is definitely not. It completely ignores the many other, very valid, reasons that people may not be having kids.
As someone who is in the prime age for having children and has absolutely zero desire to have kids now and a serious doubt about ever having kids in the future I feel like I have a thing or two to say on this topic. Let me just start out of the gate, access to reproductive healthcare for my partner has had zero impact on our feelings on kids. In-fact it hasn't come up before the Supreme Court draft decision.
To start from the personal stance, having kids is crazy expensive. Increasingly so in a society with an ever widening wealth gap that our politicians clearly have no interest in solving. Most people in my generation and younger will never be able to afford to own their own home. Most of us will be financially worse off than our parents were. Most of us have limited opportunity to build any sort of meaningful wealth as it continues to be sopped up by those already wealthy. With all of that as our reality why would I want to add something that is going to cause greater financial stress for myself. If the "domestic infant supply" was so important as to warrant a decision like this one, where is all the legislation to combat wealth inequality?
Closely tied to the wealth inequality point is the lack of guaranteed access to healthcare through a universal healthcare program. The United States is the ONLY and I repeat ONLY developed nation without universal healthcare. Our politicians have decided that healthcare is not a human right but one that should be milked for every penny it's worth. In this area we have made some strides in public opinion but politicians don't seem to want to budge. The more unpopular our current system becomes the more they dig their heals in about it. Why would I want to bring a child into that environment? One where if they get sick it is a choice between medicine and food. One where the society around them doesn't care for their wellbeing at all for completely indiscernible reasons.
Moving away from personal finance and into something potentially even more depressing, climate change. At this point most of the developed world has shown absolutely zero desire to make any meaningful changes even with the evidence staring them in the face. Politicians the world over are unwilling to make the hard calls necessary to take real action on climate change. I firmly believe we won't start seeing meaningful changes until it's far too late and lives are drastically changed; many in ways that we probably can't even imagine at this point. I have to ask myself "Why would I want to bring a child into this world knowing that this is the situation we find ourselves in?". At this point my answer is "I wouldn't.".
In general the United States has demonstrated over the last handful of years an increasing lack of desire and ability to confront it's problems in a constructive way for the population. Too much energy is focused on the needs of the few and too little is focused on the needs of the many. Vocal minorities, in wealth and ideology, seem to be calling the shots and only increasingly gaining power. This does not make for a place that I want to raise children in.
All of the points above are feelings that I don't believe I hold on my own but ones that are shared among many people my age. Not a single one of them has anything to do with access to reproductive healthcare for women and everything to do with the results of Republican, conservative policies. If the "domestic supply of infants" is so worrying to Republicans, they should be looking at themselves to blame.
Depending on where you are in the world you many or many not know about the United States Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v Wade that was released last week. This opinion is a big deal because if this becomes the final opinion of the court guaranteed access to safe reproductive healthcare and abortion for women all over this country is gone. I don't want to dissect all the specifics of Roe v Wade and it's impacts in this specific post. Honestly I'm not the right person to do so, there are many many better woman who are writing about this you should be reading instead.
What I do want to talk about is one specific point that, as a white man of reproductive age, I am qualified to speak on. In the draft opinion cited there is this notion that access to reproductive healthcare for women is somehow the cause for a "low supply of domestic infants". Now why this is of any concern of the court I have no idea but putting that aside let's break down what this is saying and what is in fact happening. Basically the court is saying that in it's opinion women shouldn't have guaranteed access to safe reproductive healthcare because we're not having enough children. This makes the heinous assumption that reproductive healthcare is the cause for this situation we find ourselves in, which it is definitely not. It completely ignores the many other, very valid, reasons that people may not be having kids.
As someone who is in the prime age for having children and has absolutely zero desire to have kids now and a serious doubt about ever having kids in the future I feel like I have a thing or two to say on this topic. Let me just start out of the gate, access to reproductive healthcare for my partner has had zero impact on our feelings on kids. In-fact it hasn't come up before the Supreme Court draft decision.
To start from the personal stance, having kids is crazy expensive. Increasingly so in a society with an ever widening wealth gap that our politicians clearly have no interest in solving. Most people in my generation and younger will never be able to afford to own their own home. Most of us will be financially worse off than our parents were. Most of us have limited opportunity to build any sort of meaningful wealth as it continues to be sopped up by those already wealthy. With all of that as our reality why would I want to add something that is going to cause greater financial stress for myself. If the "domestic infant supply" was so important as to warrant a decision like this one, where is all the legislation to combat wealth inequality?
Closely tied to the wealth inequality point is the lack of guaranteed access to healthcare through a universal healthcare program. The United States is the ONLY and I repeat ONLY developed nation without universal healthcare. Our politicians have decided that healthcare is not a human right but one that should be milked for every penny it's worth. In this area we have made some strides in public opinion but politicians don't seem to want to budge. The more unpopular our current system becomes the more they dig their heals in about it. Why would I want to bring a child into that environment? One where if they get sick it is a choice between medicine and food. One where the society around them doesn't care for their wellbeing at all for completely indiscernible reasons.
Moving away from personal finance and into something potentially even more depressing, climate change. At this point most of the developed world has shown absolutely zero desire to make any meaningful changes even with the evidence staring them in the face. Politicians the world over are unwilling to make the hard calls necessary to take real action on climate change. I firmly believe we won't start seeing meaningful changes until it's far too late and lives are drastically changed; many in ways that we probably can't even imagine at this point. I have to ask myself "Why would I want to bring a child into this world knowing that this is the situation we find ourselves in?". At this point my answer is "I wouldn't.".
In general the United States has demonstrated over the last handful of years an increasing lack of desire and ability to confront it's problems in a constructive way for the population. Too much energy is focused on the needs of the few and too little is focused on the needs of the many. Vocal minorities, in wealth and ideology, seem to be calling the shots and only increasingly gaining power. This does not make for a place that I want to raise children in.
All of the points above are feelings that I don't believe I hold on my own but ones that are shared among many people my age. Not a single one of them has anything to do with access to reproductive healthcare for women and everything to do with the results of Republican, conservative policies. If the "domestic supply of infants" is so worrying to Republicans, they should be looking at themselves to blame.