The "Child Free" Movement - Millennials who get sterilized in their 20s

quote:

---

Some might argue this is a particularly extreme option for someone so young, but Katelin is unwavering in her opinion. "I'm old enough to vote, play the lottery, drive, and go to jail—why can't I decide I don't want kids?" she asks. It's a good argument, and she's not alone in feeling like this. There is a growing number of men and women, in the UK and US, who are permanently altering their fertility. This phenomenon, known as the "child free movement," is the subject of a new BBC Three documentary, Young and Sterile: My Choice, exploring why teenagers and 20-somethings are advocating childlessness by choice, despite not already having children of their own.

---

quote:

---

People who choose to be sterilized are doing so for a whole bunch of reasons, not just out of fear of becoming accidentally pregnant or a father. Genetics is a key factor. Katelin has mental health problems and a serious heart defect she doesn't want to pass on (though she also enjoys her "vagina exactly the way it is"). Equally, Pritchard has suffered from depression throughout his life and lives with Type 1 insulin-dependent diabetes. "It would be cruel of me to enforce a child to suffer the same," he says.

---

quote:

---

For 28-year-old Andie, who chooses not to identify as a specific gender (and uses the pronoun they), the choice stems from something stronger. "My mother was a really violent person and I was excommunicated from her at a young age," says Andie. "I'm scared of having kids and turning into her, because motherhood was quite a cruel thing for me. I wouldn't want my kids to go through the same experience."

Andie was sterilized last year and says it's the best decision they've ever made. "It's massively improved my mental health and [body] dysphoria. No one ever stops people from having children so why would you stop someone who doesn't want children?"

---

quote:

---

Andie believes this resistance is a symptom of defined gender roles. "This idea that women have to settle down, get married, have children—it's quite a moral thing, isn't it? Life isn't just about reproduction. For me it goes back to this patriarchal idea that gender is binary and, within that, you have to comply with set or 'normal' roles. I'm very much against that."

---

quote:

---

Katelin assuredly disagrees. "I want time alone, time with my partner, and time to travel and spend money on luxury. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that," she says. "My generation live in a broken world. We come from broken homes and have broken minds and bodies. Many of us just don't want to reproduce. It's my life and I'm not hurting anyone."

---