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There's a baby drought in Australia. Maybe we should fund IVF? (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 6 months ago by TinyBreak@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Maybe, just maybe it shouldn't cost close to 10k to even TRY to have a kid through IVF? More like 15k out of pocket costs till the Medicare rebate anyway.

1 in 6 aussie couples will struggle with infertility whilst 1 in 20 kids is born of IVF. https://monashivf.com/one-in-six/

1 in 6 couples. 1 in 20 babies. You can see a fair gap here. Unless your comfortably "middle class", you screwed. yes there are some public clinics with no gap, but the wait times are staggering. If we're worried about falling birth rates FULLY funding IVF and fertility treatments through Medicare is a no brainer.

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[–] Psiczar@aussie.zone 32 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The media: the world is going to end, covid, expensive housing, war, climate change, death, destruction, doom.

Also the media: Australians are having fewer kids, mystery deepens.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

covid, expensive housing, war, climate change, death, destruction, doom

Honestly, I doubt any of these apart from expensive housing is playing a significant role. I haven't seen any reliable data on it, but I suspect a vanishingly small number of people genuinely choose not to have kids "because I don't want to bring kids into this terrible world". The cost of living thing though? That's something that affects the parents and their ability to feel like they even can raise a child right now.

[–] zik@aussie.zone 15 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I'm literally one of those people who you say is vanishingly small.

It's not even a "the world is bad and I don't want to subject my child to that" kind of decision. It's more like a series of thoughts over the years: "is this the right time to have a kid?" and it's never a good time.

[–] anathema_device@bne.social 8 points 6 months ago

@zik @Zagorath me too, so is my husband, and another married couple we are close friends with. So that's five of us at least.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 10 points 6 months ago

Had a vasectomy about 30 years becase their are too many people on the planet. That was the case then, now it's fucking ridiculous.

One of the reasons we increasingly have a "terrible world" is too many people.

I'd suggest tax laws to discourage people having children.

Can always adopt if you feel the need, the world seems awash with unwanted kids who already exist..