Miranda Brady is an associate professor in communication and media studies at Carleton University and author of Mother Trouble: Mediations of White Maternal Angst After Second Wave Feminism.

It’s an old adage that trends in the United States will inevitably make their way to Canada. But there are some things worth staving off before they creep north.

One such trend is pronatalism, an ideology aimed at encouraging prolific childbirth, which can involve religious undertones but also official state policies.

Conspicuously absent from the pronatalism espoused by conservative pundits is that mothers assume most of the risks in having children. Pronatalists like billionaire Elon Musk claim that prolific child-rearing will help sustain the economy and address an impending population decline. Mr. Musk, who has fathered at least 12 or 13 children with three or four different women, boasted on social media that he is “doing [his] best to help the underpopulation crisis,” noting the perceived decline as “the biggest danger civilization faces by far.”

However, demographers have argued that pronatalism amounts to a Ponzi scheme that puts pressure on younger generations to support aging........

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