Widespread concern about falling birth rates has prompted some to politically organize around reversing their decline. Representatives of this pronatalist movement — ostensibly united by little more than a belief that more babies should be brought into the world than are currently — descended upon Austin, Texas, in late March to network, organize, and propagate their views.
At least judged by the amount of media coverage it received, the meeting seems to have been a success, with one participant writing that he had “never been to an event where the ratio of national and international media members to attendees was so high.”
Ambitious and efficacious pronatalist policy will likely have to be achieved through legislative means …. First, policy aimed at increasing the birth rate as such, whatever that might look like, lacks a natural mass constituency. Second, the expansive social programs [needed are] unlikely to be championed by a government reluctant to expand the welfare state in any event.
