Widespread concern about falling birth rates has prompted some to politically organize around reversing their decline. Representatives of this pronatalist movement — ostensibly united by little more than a belief that more babies should be brought into the world than are currently — descended upon Austin, Texas, in late March to network, organize, and propagate their views.

The second Natal Conference, or “NatalCon” for short, was the successor to the original gathering in 2023. This year’s conference managed to attract around two hundred participants, at $1,000 dollars a ticket, to the AT&T Hotel & Conference Center. At least judged by the amount of media coverage it received, the meeting seems to have been a success, with one participant writing that he had “never been to an event where the ratio of national and international media members to attendees was so high.”

There were some notable hiccups, however. One failing noted by attendees was the dearth of women at the conference. According to the ubiquitous Simone Collins, a prominent participant in the proceedings, at least six female speakers withdrew because of their own pregnancies. And a conference matchmaking event flopped due to the skewed gender ratio. “There’s a lot of lads here,” one nineteen-year-old attendee bemoaned. “There’s not that many ladies.”