In over 30 years of practice, Dr. Errol Billinkoff rarely saw a man without kids come into his Winnipeg clinic to get a vasectomy. But since the pandemic began, he says it's become an almost daily occurrence.
And he's not alone.
"At first, I thought I was the only one who was noticing this," Billinkoff, who brought a no-scalpel vasectomy procedure to Winnipeg in the early 1990s, told CBC News in a November interview.
"But I am part of an international chat group where doctors who do vasectomies participate and the topic came up, and it's like everybody notices it."
I disagree but unless we get actual data on why people are choosing not to have kids then we don't really know for sure.
I'd say the major reason is wealth inequality, cost of living, inflation, housing prices, etc. Everything's too expensive... everything. It's getting to the point that life isn't even worth living anymore, as its just a repetitive cycle to work and pay bills. I both can't afford to have a kid, nor would I want to bring one into this hellscape.
Again no way to know the real reasons unless we get the data.
It's money first and foremost. People are struggling to survive by themselves. They can't afford kids. So conservatives get rid of abortion. They frame it as a religious issue, but it's only such for their ignorant followers. For those monied individuals at the top its purely about having an ever growing slave caste to exploit. Can't have infinitely growing profits without an infinitely growing base of suckers to sell shit to.
It's also about freedom. Self determination. And the general state of the world. Nothing of substance is being done about climate change. We're staring down the barrel of WWIII. Late Stage capitalism.
It's a confluence of factors that taken together paint a particularly bleak future.
Im planning on getting one soon, and it's definitely this for me.
Also I tend to believe climate scientists who say shit is going to get interesting within the next 20 years.. not really something I'd feel good about bringing a kid into.
One data point and I'm American, but figured I'd give my two cents on why I did it.
In addition to all the reasons you listed I think that my own mental health is an obstacle, and also the increasingly limited access to women's healthcare.
Making the decision to not have kids was a complex issue for me as I imagine it is for others too. Tbh the political and economic climate was probably the final push I needed, but there's probably at least 10 reasons in total.