I worked for two years as a welfare advisor in one of the poorest towns in the UK. What nobody ever thinks about in this debate is the economic incentives created by our welfare system. In that work, I spoke to numerous young women who were planning on getting pregnant in order to improve their income and get access to better housing.
If you're poor, British and female, having a baby is a good career move. As soon as that child is born, your income effectively doubles. The state pays you more cash benefits, your allowance for rent payments increases significantly and you become eligible for an array of other benefits, starting with a £500 ($770) payment before the birth. You become "in priority need of housing" and therefore gain the legal right to accommodation, jumping the queue for social housing.
Reproducing early may or may not be rational in Darwinian terms, but if you've just left school at sixteen with no qualifications and your community has 20% unemployment, it's certainly economically rational.
If you're poor, British and female, having a baby is a good career move. As soon as that child is born, your income effectively doubles. The state pays you more cash benefits, your allowance for rent payments increases significantly and you become eligible for an array of other benefits, starting with a £500 ($770) payment before the birth. You become "in priority need of housing" and therefore gain the legal right to accommodation, jumping the queue for social housing.
Reproducing early may or may not be rational in Darwinian terms, but if you've just left school at sixteen with no qualifications and your community has 20% unemployment, it's certainly economically rational.