The two-child benefit cap has been in the news a lot lately. Since Reform said it should be scrapped so as to make it easier for people to have children, Labour and Conservatives have been scrambling to figure out where they stand on the issue. Labour hasn’t ruled out lifting the cap, while Kemi Badenoch said a two-child limit seems fair. But the debate around the benefit cap has prompted an onslaught of anti-family and anti-life rhetoric.

“If you can’t afford children, then don’t have them” seems to be the favourite retort of people opposed to lifting the cap. But such a view is depressingly callous and cold, and couldn’t be more opposed to a Catholic understanding of the value of life. Taken to its logical end, the “can’t afford, don’t have” take boils down to socioeconomic eugenics. These people oppose poor families having children.