>
You mean to say a cost of living crisis makes raising kids financially unviable? Who woulda thought. >

Haha this is exactly what I'm saying and experiencing >

I made sure to have a college degree, career, and that I was financially stable before I had kids. It’s funny how that made it a lot easier than having them before that. I also didn’t need to have any of my children aborted so it’s definitely possible. >

This is how I imagine it going. Having a safe environment and stable job/finances before having the kid. I can't see that happening now - meaning some people may chose not to have kids at all >

Yeah but that means we must make it more livable and have a higher educated population. Obviously abortion needs to be banned so we can keep the poor poor and uneducated. Who else is going to work at Walmart for terrible pay??? /s >

What are you talking about? >

Finally have own a house and my job finally pays me enough to feel safe having kids, but now I'm 34 and have fertility problems. Feel like this would have gone a lot smoother if I could have started trying in my mid-20s. >

I'm sorry to hear that. This is a horrible situation to be in. >

While it's true that stable housing is a factor in deciding to settle down and have kiddos, plenty of kids, I dare say a majority, grow up in rented places.
My wife and I have 2 daughters... and our friends with kids are proof that lots of 30-somethings have kids, but we tend to have less kids than our parents did, and we live in smaller houses because everything got so insanely unaffordable everywhere. >

This gives me hope. In the UK I don't know any kid that has grown up in a rental situation, so maybe that's why I can't visualise it. >

This is a tough issue.   Foreclosures are still generally affordable in our area.   Most people are not interested.   I wish everyone could get ahead >

Everyone says "affordable" and means something different. You'll hear people calling $175k homes "affordable," not realizing the majority of Americans make less than $50k/year. >

It's not unheard of to have a $30,000 foreclosure in our area.  The selection is not great and they generally need work.  Supplies are expensive.   There was a greater selection when we bought ours.   It has been stressful at times, but overall it's been good for us >

Infertility is the physical inability to have children. Housing has no bearing on that. >

Fertility rate is the common term for births per adult female. OP's using it correctly. >

There is no infertility crisis >

By infertility I mean how many children the average female has. Nothing to do with physical infertility. Sorry for the confusion >

Has nothing to do with it. People stop having kids when their standard increases unless they have a strong incentive. This will be the plague of the 21st century. >

What kind of standard do you mean? >

Living standard. Access to more things and experiences. >

I think it's only natural to want the best conditions to raise a child, but I think a certain future, partly in the form of long-term housing, is not high standards. >

Fact >

This isnt unpopular. The right wing just wants to outlaw abortion and contraception because they need more people to keep capitalism going. You just need more bodies to do the crap jobs, fill the prisons, pay more in taxes, join the military, etc. And its a bonus for them if these people are already in poor and tough situations. >

3x IVF veteran here, some of this might be true, like my wife and I waited until we were 38, but it isn't only explainable by that. I think the average age of the patient at this clinic (they are pretty big, they do \~700 transfers a year) was about 28. The doctor told me that they really have no idea what is going on, people need more intervention at younger ages. It used to be no shock when a couple in their late 30s went to a fertility clinic, now it isn't uncommon for the couples to be in their mid 20s. 
I was constantly surprised by how young the other patients looked.