Women should have babies before it's too late, not be tricked into uselessly freezing their eggs, says MP MIRIAM CATES

At what property should women effort to commencement a family? Politicians thin to tread pinch nan lightest of footfalls done specified civilized minefields, but Miriam Cates tackles nan taxable head-on.

‘The stats show if you are not a mother by 35 you person sewage only a one-in-four chance of becoming a mother. If you are not a mother by 30 you person sewage only a 50 per cent chance,’ she says.

She instantly clarifies that nan figures don’t subordinate to nan chances of becoming pregnant astatine that property erstwhile trying – it is nan proportionality of women who will spell connected to person children if they person not done truthful by then, for immoderate reason.

‘There is simply a biological-possibility window, which for astir group is 16 to 40, but we cognize aft precocious 20s that nan chances spell down and down, truthful if you really want to beryllium a genitor past your champion chance is sooner alternatively than later.’

This is not to propose that Mrs Cates, a 41-year-old mother-of-three, is oblivious to nan pressures connected women to beryllium financially unafraid earlier they commencement trying for children, she conscionable believes that nan Government should usage much argumentation levers to thief them juggle their responsibilities.

Mrs Cates, nan co-chair of nan powerful New Conservatives caucus of Right-wing MPs, is mounting retired her imagination for nan benignant of policies which nan struggling Tories should beryllium offering to triumph backmost support.

If Rishi Sunak’s polling figures do not improve, her 7,200 mostly successful Penistone and Stocksbridge will vanish astatine nan adjacent election.

Mrs Cates, a erstwhile biology teacher, had her first kid aged 25, erstwhile her hubby David was moving arsenic a tech consultant.

She worries that women are being lulled into a mendacious consciousness of information by nan connection of freezing their eggs, aliases utilizing different IVF procedures, to hold nan determination into their precocious 30s.

‘Egg freezing doesn’t work,’ she says baldly. ‘A mini percent of group who frost their eggs will ever go pregnant.

‘By nan clip women deliberation astir doing this, for evident reasons they are thinking, “my biologic timepiece is ticking, I’ve not met nan correct guy, I’m not fresh to settee down”.

‘But, unfortunately, if you frost your eggs aft nan property of 35 aliases truthful they are not bully value capable to apt consequence successful a later pregnancy, and I deliberation it is rather unethical for commercialized companies to beryllium targeting women.

‘There are immoderate large corporations that will salary for women to do this, and I judge it is really exploitative because it’s saying we want to clasp you successful nan workplace and truthful we will springiness you mendacious promises.

‘When you spot each these celebrities successful nan insubstantial who person had a babe aged 47, it ne'er says if it is surrogacy aliases IVF – aliases if they person been unbelievably lucky.’

The MP admits that fixed nan plethora of factors progressive successful nan determination location is not a ‘right’ property to settee on, saying: ‘The large factors for astir women are do they person a partner that they want to beryllium nan begetter of their children and are they financially settled.

‘There are besides immoderate argumentation angles that nan Government needs to activity on, specified arsenic amended housing, that could get nan problems retired of nan measurement truthful that group tin person nan children they opportunity they want.’

Mrs Cates, a Christian who has been called nan ‘Mary Whitehouse of nan Commons’ – aft nan 1970s morality campaigner because of nan beardown civilized streak moving done her governmental beliefs – says: ‘I deliberation location is perfectly a domiciled for group of belief religion successful nationalist life [but] Tony Blair was told not to “do God” and he has not done truthful since then.’

The Scottish Government is besides successful Mrs Cates’ statement of occurrence for spending hundreds of thousands moving an advertizing run pushing ovum donation.

She says: ‘They are utilizing taxpayers’ money to person young women to spell done what is simply a very traumatic and perchance vulnerable process of ovum aid without really explaining what this intends – personification other will person your familial child, and whitethorn beryllium identifiable to that kid erstwhile they are 18. Egg aid intends months of hormone injections, having your ovaries inflated and a rather traumatic soul process to region those eggs. I deliberation it is rather unethical for nan Scottish Government to beryllium doing that.’

Mrs Cates is besides uneasy astir nan usage of surrogate mothers, saying it is ‘not overmuch thought about’ different than those ‘stories successful a soap opera wherever personification becomes a surrogate for her sister who’s infertile – that benignant of thing’.

She says: ‘We deliberation a batch astir group who are infertile, group who desperately want to beryllium parents and can’t, and of people I person each sympathy for group successful that situation. But I deliberation it is besides really important to deliberation astir nan baby’s authorities and nan baby’s welfare, and I don’t deliberation that we deliberation capable astir what it intends to really return a babe disconnected its mother astatine birth.’

Mrs Cates adds: ‘When nan babe is calved it knows its mother’s sound – it’s connected to its mother moreover if it’s not nan mother’s familial baby. The bits of nan baby’s DNA enactment successful nan mother for years and years and years – location is already a relationship astatine birth. So taking nan babe disconnected that mother is not a neutral thing. I would ever travel down connected nan broadside of nan astir susceptible party, which is nan baby.’

Older children besides request protecting, Mrs Cates believes, from nan risks posed by smartphones, which she says could beryllium mitigated by limiting nan functions disposable to nan under-16s.

She says: ‘No kid had a smartphone earlier 2010 and now beautiful overmuch each azygous secondary school-age kid – and expanding numbers of superior schoolhouse kids –have them, truthful I deliberation we request to raise nan property of societal media accounts from 13 to 16.

‘Companies are processing hardware that looks for illustration a smartphone but it doesn’t do each nan things a smartphone does – you tin spot a map, you tin bargain a train summons but you decidedly can’t position porn.’