Women Should Have Babies By Age 25, Says Frustrating Poll

If you've passed the quarter-century mark and have yet to reproduce, the majority of Americans apparently think that the clock is ticking.

Gallup polled 5,100 people on the ideal childbearing age, a whopping 58 percent of whom said that women should start having children at age 25 or younger. The "ideal" age for men to start reproducing was 27.

We think that Jezebel's Erin Gloria Ryan had the appropriate reaction:

Who raised you (you = America) to think that it would be perfectly hunky-dory if this nation's 24 year olds went out and started knocking each other up, just, en masse? THINK OF A 24-YEAR-OLD YOU KNOW. Why are you encouraging them to have a baby?

According to Gallup, views on the ideal childbearing age vary significantly depending on education level. More specifically, Americans who have completed college or gotten a graduate degree are more likely to believe women should wait until they are 26 or older to have children than those who did not finish or attend college.

While there are biological, time-sensitive realities that impact female fertility, the state of a woman's reproductive parts -- and when she plans to use them -- are nobody's business but hers. So here's what we recommend: women who want children should have them whenever they like, when they are emotionally and financially ready to do so. And they should be able to do so without judgment or pressure. The end.

[h/t Jezebel]