As birth rates decline, women’s independence will be more at risk

History tells us that all freedoms are conditional. In 1920, the Soviet Union became the first country in the world to legalize abortion, as part of the socialist commitment to women’s health and well-being. Sixteen years later, this decision was reversed when Stalin came to power and realized that birth rates were declining.

The pressure on all countries to maintain their population levels has never gone away. But in 2025, this demographic crisis will become more serious, and gender rights will be the casualty. In both US and UKThe birth rate has declined for 15 years. In Japan, Poland and Canada, the fertility rate has already fallen to 1.3. In China and Italy, it is 1.2. South Korea has the lowest level in the world, at 0.72. Research published by the Lancet medical journal predicts that by around the year 2100 Every country on the planet It will not produce enough babies to maintain its population size.

Much of this is because women have more access to contraception, are better educated than ever before, and hold jobs that make them more likely to avoid or delay having children. Parents invest more in each child they have. Fortunately, the patriarchal expectations that women should be nothing more than baby makers are crumbling.

But the original dilemma remains: How do countries have more children? Governments have responded to calls and incentives to encourage families to have children. Hungary has Income tax was abolished For mothers under the age of thirty. In 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was seen Crying on TV He also urged the National Conference of Mothers to do its part to stop the decline in birth rates. In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni supported a campaign to reach the least Half a million births annually by 2033

As these measures fail to have the desired effect, the pressure on women takes a more sinister turn. Conservative pro-natalist movements They promote old-fashioned nuclear families with a large number of children, which is only possible if a woman gives birth early. This ideology It is at least partly informed by the devastating crackdown on abortion access in some US states. Anyone who thinks abortion rights have nothing to do with population concerns should note that in the summer of 2024, Republicans in the US Senate also voted against the measure. Contraception is a federal right. This same worldview fuels a growing backlash against sexual and gender minorities, whose presence, for some, poses a threat to the traditional family. The most extreme pro-natalists It also includes white supremacists and eugenicists.

The more countries pay attention to birth rates, the greater the threat to gender rights. In China, for example, the government has taken A sharply anti-feminist stance In recent years. President Xi Jinping said at a meeting of the All-China Women’s Federation in 2023 that women should “actively cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing.”

Currently, most women are able to exercise at least some choice over whether, when, and how many children they have. But with fertility rates falling below replacement levels, there is no telling how far some countries can go to shore up their population levels. 2025 appears to be the year in which their option can be withdrawn.