The post on X from the Stop Having Kids movement read: “Fantastic day of 3-hour-long outreach in New York City at Washington Square Park this past Thursday,” and went on to thank all those who’d offered “love and support.”
The first of two attached photos showed four men holding signs, declaring: “The only kind choice in a cruel world is to stop having kids,” “Kids deserve a far better world than this one,” “A lot of humans wish they were never born,” “You can make a family without having kids,” “What is one unselfish reason to have children?” and, finally, “Join the vasectomy club.”
The second photo, a wider version of the first, depicted, along with posters in each man’s hands, a second sign at their feet, and next to them, a long row of propped-up boards with similar sentiments. “If they had some kids their signs would not have to be on the ground,” one commentor noted. Ah, yes, what irony.
Maybe the turnout was exceptional, but these photos, taken in one of the most populated cities in the United States, only reveal four lone participants with triple the signs. It might have been more convincing to take the photos at the height of the day, rather than before the throngs showed — or well afterward. Unless, of course, there really were no crowds.
I also wonder where the women were. The lack of female representation here doesn’t exactly compel.
Another irony comes from the obvious fact that a movement hoping to persuade people to stop having kids seems to have a built-in guarantee of failure. After all, if everyone complies, not only will there be no one to complain but there will be no one, period, eventually.
The curious attempt at stopping procreation, a natural human process, brings further perplexion given the timing, with reports coming in of historically low birth rates across all races, including a reference in a recent LOOPCAST podcast responding to an April 28 Politicoarticle, “The Far Right’s Campaign to Explode the Population .”
LOOPCAST pointed to a National Center for Health Statistics report revealing the 2023 birth rate comparable to 1.6 births per woman, well below the replacement rate and a dip from previously reported all-time lows, which the hosts called potentially catastrophic.
What might the motive be of the Stop Having Kids movement, I wondered, finally finding a clue on their website, which envisions a future in which those choosing a childfree lifestyle won’t be “stigmatized, attacked or questioned for their morally neutral choice to not create new humans.”
But then I saw their billboard, which clarified everything: “Make Love, Not Babies: You can opt out of procreation today and still enjoy a fulfilling sex life.” It’s the old “We want the fun without any consequences.” In other words, “Let’s use others for our pleasure guilt-free.”
If I’m being honest, that’s just…gross. I could say more, but for now, I’m confident in predicting that this selfish pursuit has about slim-to-none chances of success.
[For the sake of having a repository for my newspaper columns and articles, I reprint them here, with permission, a week after their run date. The preceding ran in The Forum newspaper on May 19, 2024.]
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