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‘Childless cat ladies’ fight a tide of pronatalism

A strange new alliance is growing between those who want to restrict abortion and those asking their compatriots to have more children.

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Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance of Ohio speaks during a campaign rally at the Georgia State Convocation Center.

Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio speaks during a campaign rally at the Georgia State Convocation Centre.

PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Camilla Cavendish

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If Donald Trump dumps Mr J.D. Vance – and with all the gracelessness of a mafia don – it won’t be surprising. Trump’s hasty pick for a running mate has been attracting too much of the wrong kind of attention.

Mr Vance’s now

notorious attack on his opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, and other Democrats as “childless cat ladies”

has out-nastied and overshadowed Trump’s own fumbling response to Ms Harris’ candidacy. It has also exposed something deeper: a growing pronatalist movement amid concerns about falling birth rates, which is becoming a feature in both Europe and America. 

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