It takes many children to save a village – 09/25/2023 – Vera Iaconelli

The African proverb “it takes a village to care for a child” repeated “ad nauseam” reveals that there are wiser ways than ours to deal with the future of a society. I proposed reversing the saying, because the consistent decrease in the number of births has had disastrous economic, political and social effects for the “village”. The idea that “whoever gave birth to Matthew is the one who cradles him” poses the question of whether we will have enough “Matthews” to push our wheelchairs when the lights go out. The gradual decrease in the economically active population in developed countries makes retirement and a minimally stable economy mirages.

It remains to count on immigrants, that social stratum whose productivity is exploited without economic and social compensation. They are the ones who go to work and have children that others don’t have, changing the ethnic profile of populations that still have the pride of being proud of their racial “purity”. Just go to the major capitals of Europe to see how the human color palette has changed in recent decades.

Still in a mostly subordinate position, dark-skinned black people who travel across the old continent, from former colonies and other locations, return to the countries that usually dispose of their homelands in the same way they dispose of their bodies for poorly paid and unhealthy work. They are the ones who once again save the world economies with their work and descendants, being treated as second-class citizens.

At the base of this pyramid we have people who give birth and give birth, whether they are women or trans men. The people on whom the “village” depends to not go extinct, either because they bring children into the world, or because they primarily care for them, and who are the most despised among us. As a result of neglect and the collapse of the care economy, they end up going on a silent and consistent “womb strike” even when they want to have children. The accumulation of the roles of care provider and financial provider for mothers is one of the historical violences of capitalism, but it becomes unsustainable with the neoliberal logic of each for himself and no one for all.

Some people don’t want to have children and there is no need to justify themselves about that. Some give up due to the lack of social, political, economic and emotional conditions to fulfill this desire.

On the other hand, unwanted pregnancy only penalizes trans women and men, morally and legally exempting those who inseminate. In these cases, we fight tirelessly for the right to terminate a pregnancy. It is good to remember — as Pastor Henrique Vieira did in a powerful speech in the Chamber of Deputies — that the State is secular and religious opinions have no place in the discussion about the decriminalization of abortion.

Violence towards those who wish to have an abortion —preventing, criminalizing, refusing assistance, letting people die— is of the same nature as the lack of support for those who wish to have children. Both are the result of hypocrisy, false moralism and reproductive policies based on sexist stereotypes. They are echoes of the fantasy that babies are delivered by storks — without the responsibility of men — and created by mother nature and not by real people trying to survive with dignity.

If we continue to let Matthew fall from our laps, there will be no village left to tell the story.

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