[Robotbeat]

I'm not sure, frankly, but I think there's a connection. A more sexless society is also a society with a lower overall birthrate. When the pressures of urbanization and modern life mean few people choose to have children while the trends in the article and in many of these comments show that people are less likely to accidentally/serendipitously become pregnant as well combine to somewhat drastically reduce the birthrate.

[throwawaysea]

It's probably many things, but I think another factor is a delayed transition to (biological) adulthood, which leaves fewer "prime years" for the tiring task of raising children. That delayed transition comes in part from an increased focus on the self. Although individualism is often attacked or derided in modern American culture (from the political left at least), I feel like there is a near-universal individualism across our society that never existed in the past - people are delaying/skipping having children and putting their own exploration and experience first. It's a luxury in that we didn't have this option previously as a species, but now we can entertain "finding ourselves" or traveling as a lifestyle and so on. For many, delaying parenthood or skipping it outright is a simple matter of not disturbing that freedom of choice that they've come to enjoy. For others, that freedom itself becomes tiring and the search for purpose brings them back to children. But the side effect in aggregate, is a more sexless society and lower overall birthrate. Just a thought...

[Robotbeat]

That, and the hyper-individualism of capitalism makes it super hard to AFFORD that collectivist goal of perpetuating the species. Housing is much more expensive, as is healthcare, which are two things you need when starting out as a young family. Lack of collective bargaining power compared to the 50s means starting wages are also much lower and jobs are less stable, so it’s harder to take that leap to add another person to the household (which requires probably another room plus thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses which as a young person could be the same as an entire year’s income).

So I think the challenge is a kind of selfish individualism from both the left and the right, although of different types. And let’s not even count the cost of schooling (which the right wants to burden the parents for).

[WarOnPrivacy]

> That delayed transition comes in part from an increased focus on the self.

Mostly no. It comes because modern hiring practices are trending toward making first time job applicants unemployable - and because under-25 incomes are less likely to come anywhere near covering minimal living expenses.

[mensetmanusman]

Not necessarily. There have been about 60 million abortions since then in the US which don’t get counted in the fertility rate.

[Robotbeat]

US abortion rate is now lower than it was before Roe vs Wade and fertility rate has been dropping in tandem with the dropping abortion rate, so I don't think that explains it.

[mensetmanusman]

Not necessarily, morning after pills and IUD-induced abortions are not counted.

[Robotbeat]

Neither are regular hormonal pill abortions. In fact, the pill (monthly pill, not morning-after) is the most common birth control method and most prolife people support it, even though technically there’s a possibility that it may prevent implantation (if for whatever reason ovulation happens anyway).

If you want to call that abortion, then go right ahead but I think you’ll be in the minority (just like people probably wouldn’t call a natural lack of implantation a miscarriage because they have literally no way of knowing that it happened... a dewer containing 100 frozen undifferentiated embryos is just not the same as an actual child, and I think most people do not act like it is). I think the vast majority of people understand a sort of gradient between conception and birth. Most people who are prolife would be uncomfortable banning the pill and most people who are nominally pro choice probably aren’t too comfortable with later-term abortions. Reality is complicated and so are people’s opinions.

[WarOnPrivacy]

> A more sexless society is also a society with a lower overall birthrate.

Since the 1950s, basic living has steadily become increasingly complex and decreasingly affordable. Sex is harder for six exhausted roommates under one roof.

[retrac]

Birth rates plummeted through the 1960s and 1970s across the Western world, while the gonorrhea rates skyrocketed, in a period specifically noted for its sexual forwardness.

[Robotbeat]

Birthrates plummeted in the 1960s but were still vastly higher than today. Birthrates peaked in the 1950s. Current birthrates are equal to the nadir of birthrates in 1980, but they appear to still be falling (but we shall see!).