The birth rate for U.K. in 2019 was 11.488 births per 1000 people, a 0.48% decline from 2018. The birth rate for U.K. in 2018 was 11.543 births per 1000 people, a 1.54% decline from 2017' - www.macrotrends.netThat's approximately 1.7 children per woman, so the UK birth rate is declining and has been for the past six years. Anecdotally, amongst the people I know, most families have one to two children, with one exception (four children, but they live in a rural part of the UK's least populous county). I also know couples who have experienced difficulty in conceiving and struggle to welcome one - very much wanted - baby into their family. It also appears that there is awareness that larger families can place a strain on infrastructure and resources (particularly in cities) not to mention the financial burden on the family, especially in these times of work insecurity. Large families are absolutely not the norm nowadays and it's disingenuous to suggest otherwise. If 'our own indigenous, careless and uneducated youngsters seem to have no care over getting pregnant', I refer to what I said earlier; flood school age children with intelligent sex education, make contraception easy to obtain and remove the stigma attached to terminating unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. Also, work on raising the consciousness of boys and young men who consider it a slight to their masculinity to use a condom or participate in decision-making regarding birth control. Young people are hard-wired to want to become sexually active - raging hormones plus natural curiosity is a pretty potent combination. It's naïve to think that anyone can stop it happening, nor should they. If the individuals are of age and the situation is consensual, then they should go for it, without shame or furtiveness. It's just important that they have the means for it to be fun AND safe.I'm very pro-sex. I think everyone should be having loads more of it (unless, of course, it's not your bag) and the commonest deathbed regret is that there wasn't enough shag-action. But I also believe that the key to making it work is effective sex education, starting at an early age. (I include in this lots of education about same-sex partnerships and matters LGBTQIA.) Start early enough and the message will get through; children are brilliant that way - look at how they have embraced the issues of pollution and climate change. They get it. But this is moving away from the point. Imposed birth quotas smack of the thin end of a worrying wedge. Faith groups and rightwing governments, with strong pro-life stances, are a problem. It seems that they should really call themselves pro-foetus, being unnaturally obsessed by the unborn child, but having no interest in what happens to the baby, or its parents, after the birth. Family planning is repugnant to them, but so are families who can't cope and need help. Therefore, I return - yet again - to the provision of education, freely available birth control and a backstop in the form of safely obtained and shame-free terminations. One can only hope that it will go some way toward reducing unwanted pregnancies - and also do away with the sneery virtue-signalling toward those who wish for a larger family from the 'anti-breeder' faction. If saving the planet is your objective (and that's a GREAT objective) there are other, kinder ways to go about it.
Tracie Dudley Craig ● 2012d