Of cats and children: why Americans are having fewer babies

JD Vance is having a hard time moving past his 2021 comment that America is being run by “childless cat ladies”. The Republican vice-presidential nominee was referring to Democrats generally and Kamala Harris (a stepmother to two children) in particular; he has since clarified he meant to criticise the Democratic party as being “anti-family and anti-children”. In one respect, Vance is right to worry: Americans are having fewer babies.​​ The Pew Research Center reported last week that the share of US adults under 50 who say they are unlikely to ever have children rose to 47 per cent in 2023, up from 37 per cent in 2018. Of that group, over half said a major reason is they just didn’t want to have kids. Other reasons include: focusing on careers or other interests; concern about the future state of the world and not being able to afford it. Changing that will require significant social and political shifts – and Vance doesn’t have all the answers. In June he voted to block Democrat-proposed legislation to guarantee nationwide access to IVF.