We spend billions on immigration instead of reproductive technologies. Here's some fertility "rights" science for you, courtesy of Denmark: Women will have babies - if they can. A scientific study reports Denmark has a birth rate of 1.9 children per woman, close to the 2.1 level needed to replace current populations, and much higher than most Western countries (Canada's is 1.6, Italy's is 1.2) despite the fact the age Danish women are having children at is rising. (Fertility declines after women hit 30.) What makes Danish women so fecund? The study, New Scientist magazine reports, theorizes it's because Denmark has a high proportion of babies born through artificial reproductive technologies (ART), including in vitro fertilization (IVF) - 4.2 per cent of births in 2002 compared to 1.4 per cent in Britain that year and 1.2 per cent in the U.S. in 2004. "The finding lends support to calls for increased government funding of IVF in other countries with flagging birth rates," New Scientist says. "In Denmark, IVF is widely accepted, heavily subsidized and waiting times are short." Not here. In Canada, we think couples who can't afford the costs - which can be as high as $30,000 an attempt - are out of luck. What happens instead is that people, like the couple who recently had sextuplets in B.C., turn to hyper-ovulation drugs, says Kerry William Bowman, an assistant professor of bioethics with the University of Toronto. And how much more does neonatal care for premature babies cost than ART? Or the higher health costs associated with preemie babies for their rest of their lives? Cost of ART still too high? How about the alternative? In Canada, we respond to low birth rates by increasing immigration - though it costs about $1.6 billion in departmental and resettlement costs to do so - and although immigration already accounts for two-thirds of our population growth, while domestic births account for only one-third and are expected to account for zero by 2030.
The result: Almost all our population growth is within metropolitan Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver - the cities that attract immigrants - increasing congestion, pollution, strains on social services, schools and transit and social tensions. In short, why is it easier - and more politically correct - to import babies, than to produce them? Prejudice is one problem - and it's not against immigrants, but against women in Canada, landed immigrants and citizens alike. Women are blamed for delaying childbirth even though it's couples making these decisions together, says Bowman. And women are often in a Catch-22 situation: Society frowns on out-of-wedlock births, teen pregnancies and couples having children before they can afford them. But if a woman goes through university, marries at the average age of 28 (because men are delaying marriage to 30) and then she and her husband establish themselves financially before starting a family, she might be in her 30s, when fertility is already declining. Add to that the fact many couples don't seek fertility treatment until they've spent years trying, and "we're talking mid-30s to mid-40s" - the predominant age of couples seeking fertility treatments, says Bowman.
The result: Almost all our population growth is within metropolitan Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver - the cities that attract immigrants - increasing congestion, pollution, strains on social services, schools and transit and social tensions. In short, why is it easier - and more politically correct - to import babies, than to produce them? Prejudice is one problem - and it's not against immigrants, but against women in Canada, landed immigrants and citizens alike. Women are blamed for delaying childbirth even though it's couples making these decisions together, says Bowman. And women are often in a Catch-22 situation: Society frowns on out-of-wedlock births, teen pregnancies and couples having children before they can afford them. But if a woman goes through university, marries at the average age of 28 (because men are delaying marriage to 30) and then she and her husband establish themselves financially before starting a family, she might be in her 30s, when fertility is already declining. Add to that the fact many couples don't seek fertility treatment until they've spent years trying, and "we're talking mid-30s to mid-40s" - the predominant age of couples seeking fertility treatments, says Bowman.
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