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Comment by lotsofpulp | Hacker News Reader

>religion, government policy, cultural practice, wealth, quality of life, social equality, education, trade, war, climate, and a host of other factors.

Which all are taken into account, by the financially independent woman choosing to get pregnant (because they have access to very effective birth control and are not being forced to have sex, and have abortion as an option).

>And all this in the face of global climate change on a scale not seen in millennia.

I think the biggest thing that has not been seen regarding population dynamics is women having complete control over if, when, and how many children they have.

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How can all that be taken into account when we are currently living under only one specific configuration? Women under our current configuration do not choose to get pregnant simply because the current society doesn’t value repopulation. When we as a society value a birthing mother more than a successful business person we will have more babies. It’s that simple.

>When we as a society value a birthing mother more than a successful business person we will have more babies. It’s that simple.

This is what I mean. Not that each woman is explicitly evaluating all of those factors, but implicitly, they all culminate in an environment where a woman may or may not choose to have x number of children.

A financially independent woman in some developed countries today still doesn't necessarily get to choose when she will get pregnant, or by whom. Financial independence does not trump social convention (especially since social convention dictates financial independence).

Hell, just look at the USA. A woman still can't choose when she can or can't have a baby, regardless of her wealth. This being one of the supposed "civilized nations"; other nations are far less subtle with their societal controls.

>A financially independent woman in some developed countries today still doesn't necessarily get to choose when she will get pregnant, or by whom.

Then I would say she is not financially independent, since she cannot afford to hire sufficient security to protect her from rape.

>Hell, just look at the USA. A woman still can't choose when she will or won't have a baby, regardless of her wealth.

Unless one is being held captive, one’s wealth should allow access to IUDs and travel to jurisdictions where abortion is legal. At the least, there is sufficient rule of law where the societal norm is that rape is completely unacceptable.

You're about to be downvoted to hell, so allow me to quickly comment that you lack a certain amount of knowledge about the reality of women's reproductive rights in the USA. I'm not talking about rape at all. There are a variety of challenges to women just legally obtaining birth control in the USA, abortion is effectively illegal and unavailable to nearly all women in the USA (once again), and women need abortions for a whole lot more reasons than 'just' being raped.

Although even on that front, it is, well, just completely insane to insinuate that a woman needs to be rich enough to hire a body guard to prevent her from being raped. I can't believe I had to type that sentence.

You will have to provide some sources for your claims, because I have read that quite a few US states have explicitly made abortion legal in recent months. And the Affordable Care Act made birth control free for many, many people:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/09/politics/abortion-rights-2022...

https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/birth-control-benefits/

Also, I am using the term financially free to mean a person who not only has civil rights that would prevent them from ever becoming pregnant without their permission, but also someone who cannot be coerced, such as a woman with sufficient assets or income to sustain (and protect) herself.

>just completely insane to insinuate that a woman needs to be rich enough to hire a body guard to prevent her from being raped.

Yes, unfortunately, some women are born in societies where the concept of rape is not completely rejected.

"Abortion is effectively illegal and unavailable to nearly all women in the USA"

In reality abortion is readily available until birth in many jurisdictions.

Lol how many abortions are preformed yearly in the usa?

A number of children equal to either the entire population of either Fort Worth, TX or Baltimore, MD (depending on whether or not you believe Guttmacher or the CDC) is killed every year [2].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b... [2]: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/24/what-the-da...

Abortion is not illegal in the US… please read up on what Roe v. Wade overturn actually did - returned the decision to the states.

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