A few years ago my writers’ group, which happened to consist of six non-mothers (we dubbed it the Child-free Ladies’ Mind Workers Union Local #1), got into a discussion of our reasons for not having children. Anne-Marie, a poet, said that she had been influenced back in her college days by a speech she heard about, some graduate of a ritzy college vowing not to have children. “That was me,” I told her. It was a little unnerving to discover that my action 40 years ago had personal consequences in her life.