Most babies born in England and Wales in 2021 were born out of wedlock, for the first time since records began. Nobody is surprised. Few are troubled. Most Western countries have been trending this way for decades. Still, apparently to some people, the idea that anyone might be troubled is itself troubling.
Writing for the Guardian, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett complains that the term “wedlock” evokes in her the same “strong feeling of queasiness” she feels while “reading about the rollback of abortion rights in the US.” (Last year England and Wales also saw the highest number of abortions since records began.) “Wedlock” gives Cosslett the sense “that the past is not so distant” as she, “an autonomous woman in the 21st century, once thought.” She hates being reminded that there are “still people in the world” who think that children being raised by their biological, married parents is important.
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