CONFRONTING PRONATALISM
What is pronatalism?
Pronatalism refers to the societal and institutional pressures to have children, which often show up as pressures for children or grandchildren by family members; religious messaging to “be fruitful and multiply;” and political pressures to grow the military, specific racial and ethnic groups, and the economy. These pressures are a product of at least five thousand years of patriarchal norms. Pronatalism both undermines reproductive choice and is the leading driver of overpopulation.
“When it comes to reproduction and the transition to motherhood, how much room to maneuver do women actually have if we are free to choose only what society wants us to choose?”
Dr. Orna Donath, Regretting Motherhood
The population taboo
Unfortunately, some policies of the recent past that sought to stabilize our population, such as China’s one-child policy and forced sterilizations in India, were coercive and violated human rights. These egregious episodes have resulted in the silencing of population discussions to the present day, to the point where merely mentioning the word “overpopulation” has become taboo. This taboo is misguided, as most population stabilization efforts have been rights-based and voluntary. It is also deeply harmful because it does not acknowledge that pronatalist pressures to give birth have been far more pervasive than coercive population stabilization efforts, and that this form of oppression of women and girls is what drives population growth.
“Seen through a feminist lens, overpopulation is the result of pronatalism, which undermines not only reproductive choice but also the rights of children to be born into conditions conducive to their wellbeing – socially, materially, and ecologically.”
Nandita Bajaj, The Perils of Population Denial
From stigma around not having children, to abortion bans and contraceptive restrictions, to obstacles that prevent elective sterilization, to domestic violence to women who are caught using contraceptives, this force remains powerful in women’s lives to this day. Everywhere in the world, where women are empowered and gain access to contraception, fertility drops - in the absence of pronatalism, population growth would not be an issue. As such, “overpopulation” is a feminist concept. Neutralizing pronatalism will result not only in liberation for women and girls, but also in shrinking our population as more people freely choose to have fewer or no children.
Pronatalism versus antinatalism: What is the difference?
Pronatalism is the societal pressure to have children. Antinatalism is a philosophical position that views having children as unethical. Opposing pronatalism is not antinatalism. Our goal is a world where people are neither pressured into having children nor scorned for having them, and where people arrive at reproductive decisions with maximum autonomy, education, and informed responsibility.
“When one’s choices affect the welfare of others, they are morally significant. Procreation obviously affects the welfare of others—both the child who is conceived and the people who are later affected by the child’s presence.”
Dr. Trevor Hedberg, The Ethics of Procreation
Explore OVERSHOOT episodes about pronatalism
Low-fertility alarmism is rampant in many countries. Who is and isn't encouraged to reproduce has always been a question of power in the US. Legal scholar Michele Goodwin traces a disturbing lineage from the forced breeding of enslaved women and the sterilization of primarily poor white women deemed genetically unfit to the very different reproductive choices available to women on the basis of race and class. She reveals how reproductive rights in the Roe era came to focus on abortion rights and failed to address broader reproductive injustices, especially the use of state power to police the wombs of Black and brown women.
The “birthgap crisis" isn’t supported by the evidence. Nandita Bajaj joins childfree researchers Jennifer Watling Neal, Zachary Neal, and podcast host Ricardo Lopes in this republished episode of The Dissenter podcast. They take on the disinformation prevalent in the film Birthgap, from widespread involuntary childlessness and unmet desires for children to the supposed economic catastrophe of falling fertility, and share the facts from their project Birthgap Facts.
Pronatalism is the oldest form of reproductive control. Population Balance Executive Director, Nandita Bajaj, joins fellow guest and legal scholar Michele Goodwin and podcast host Shoshanna Ehrlich in this episode of the Ask a Feminist podcast. They discuss the rise of patriarchy and pronatalism in the first empires, the racist and eugenicist history of pronatalism in the U.S., and why 'progressive' pronatalism must be resisted as forcefully as pronatalism from the right.
As South Korea’s birth rates continue to decline, reporter Ji-Hye Jeong highlights the rising tide of young feminists who are staging a strike against patriarchy. Despite relentless backlash, the surge in South Korea’s women’s resistance movements - from the 2015 feminist 'reboot' and 'escape the corset' to 4B - offers a radical response to the misogynistic forces that compel women into marriage and motherhood.
Sociologist Philip N. Cohen debunks the pronatalist claims on both the right and left that falling birth rates spell disaster. Noting that pronatalism is a key feature of authoritarian states, Cohen warns that the adoption of this problematic 'fertility crisis' framing among liberals is paving the way for coercive right-wing policies, and why we must abandon this narrative.
Social psychologist Susan Newman, author of Just One, shares the abundant research challenging long-held myths about only children and why the growing popularity of one-child families reflects greater parental and child satisfaction and ecological awareness.
From center-left Ezra Klein to right-wing Matt Walsh, the fertility panic is an elite fixation that is rooted in a human supremacist worldview and a deep fear of slowing growth. Samuel Miller McDonald, geographer and author of Progress: A History of Humanity's Worst Idea, joins us.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is often seen as a triumph of reproductive freedom, but its origins are deeply entangled with patriarchy, pronatalism, and eugenics. Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos, IVF survivor and author of Silent Sorority and Finally Heard, joins us.
How many humans can the planet support without capsizing? Alan Weisman, journalist and author of Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, joins us.
Childfree adults make up a significant portion of the population, yet they remain largely invisible in policymaking and demographic surveys. Zachary Neal and Jennifer Watling Neal, psychologists and childfree researchers, join us.
Explore the Beyond Pronatalism podcast
Miriam was raised in France in an emotionally demanding family dynamic, a product of her mother’s poor mental health and her parents’ unhappy marriage. As the oldest daughter, she felt responsible for her younger sisters as well as her parents’ emotional wellbeing. At 20, a conversation with her ecologically-minded, childfree partner helped her realize, with a great sense of relief, that she didn’t have to become a mother and follow the life script she was raised with. Now a junior doctor in southern Germany, Miriam happily embraces the freedom and possibilities of her childfree life.
Growing up in rural, Catholic Newfoundland, Lindsey absorbed the expectation that motherhood was her destiny. Seeking external validation through relationships with men, she struggled to understand why traditional family life seemed to come so easily to others but eluded her. Writing her book, Nobody's Mother: A Childfree Memoir, saved her life and helped her discover that she was chasing a life she never actually desired. Now married and happily childfree, she hopes the book will help others navigate their own life path beyond pronatalist expectations.
Growing up in the counterculture of the 1960s, Sarah felt alienated when her peers embraced the traditional path of marriage and family, while she pursued a life of scholarship. Pulled by the strength of pronatalism, she briefly experimented with marriage only to realize that path was not for her. In her book, Pronatalism: Discourses and Counterdiscourses, Sarah examines the pronatalist tropes that shape women’s lives, from the “biological clock” to “having it all.” Now retired, Sarah enjoys her life as a "nother" and the stimulation and community bonds of her Brooklyn neighborhood.
Raised in a conservative Christian family in Germany, David grew up with the belief that marriage and children were inevitable, an assumption he carried into his relationships despite privately questioning the morality of procreation. When he learned that his fertility was severely impaired, he felt an unexpected sense of relief. As his concerns about climate change, animal suffering, and an uncertain future intensified, David committed to his childfree convictions, underwent a vasectomy, and now works as a vegan advocate.
Alex grew up immersed in the pronatalism of suburban family life, and she assumed marriage and motherhood were in her future. Now married, a recent health diagnosis has complicated her plans to conceive. Alex's strong environmental values, minimalist approach to consumption, and desire for 'slow travel' have kept her and her husband open to the possibilities of a fulfilling childfree life.
Therese grew up assuming marriage and motherhood were simply part of her future, even though she sensed from early adulthood that neither felt right for her. It wasn't until she was 40, as she became a documentary filmmaker, that she realized she was already living a fulfilling life. That awakening led her to examine the powerful influence of patriarchy through the art of filmmaking.
Nathan knew from a young age that he never wanted children, a resolve that only got stronger as he woke up to pronatalism in college. Now in his late 30s and in a committed childfree relationship, Nathan values the freedom that being childfree allows him — from reflecting in solitude and going on long bike rides with his partner, to enriching his political awareness and writing about social justice and animal rights.
Raised in Greece by progressive, highly educated parents, Elisa felt little pressure to become a mother and ultimately chose a childfree life shaped by concerns for her own mental health and the future of life on Earth. We explore her work on ecological grief and why society often overlooks grief related to environmental loss and the death of companion animals. Dedicated to the protection of animals and the more-than-human world, Elisa finds deep satisfaction in the freedoms that her nomadic, minimalist, childfree lifestyle offers her.
As the oldest child, Erich spent much of his youth caring for younger siblings and cousins, and that experience squashed any 'parental instinct' he might have had. Repeatedly denied a vasectomy as a young adult, he endured years of frustration and several pregnancy scares before finally receiving the procedure that brought him lasting peace of mind. By his mid-thirties, Erich concluded that he preferred to remain single, and today he enjoys the freedom to travel the world for work and pleasure, building friendships and community along the way.
Raised in a chaotic and violent household, poet Molly Peacock knew from a young age that she didn't want to be a mother. Escaping the trauma that surrounded her, she developed a rich, internal world of poetic imagination fed by voracious reading and writing that would lead to her decades-long career as a poet, biographer, and essayist. An accidental pregnancy at age 38 led Molly to affirm her childfree choice with an abortion and tubal ligation. In her mid-forties she reconnected with her high school boyfriend and they remained happily married for decades until his death. Now widowed, Molly retains a deep joy for her richly creative and socially engaged life.
Explore our media articles about pronatalism
“This notion that the solution to every economic problem is to force more women to have more babies is deeply misogynistic,” Bajaj said. “It reduces women to baby-making vessels. This productive and unproductive narrative is very harmful in general, rather than viewing the population as people who deserve to live in a thriving environment.”
There is no conclusive evidence that declining birth rates indicate unfulfilled desires for more children. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that greater reproductive choice is empowering people to delay parenthood and have fewer or no children. So why all the panic about declining birth rates? Lack of demographic literacy together with deeply rooted pronatalism has helped the spread of misinformation and misunderstanding.
There is no conclusive evidence that primary infertility, a biological inability to reproduce, is a cause of declining birth rates in the US. Trump's pro-IVF agenda is anything but feminist. Together with its expansion of the global gag rule and funding cuts to Planned Parenthood, the administration's IVF-expansion plan is part of a pro-conception doctrine influenced by tech-right elites with large investments in the 'fertility' industry.
Not so long ago, the conventional wisdom in most liberal/left circles was that people concerned about population growth tended to be racists, nativists, and eugenicists. And mostly old white guys, according to a leading UK environmental writer. “It’s no coincidence that most of those who are obsessed with population growth are post-reproductive wealthy white men,” wrote George Monbiot.
There is no lack of good ideas, from economic models that center wellbeing and rethink growth to radical ecological democracy. Exploring them requires getting off the endless growth treadmill that enriches elites at the expense of the rest of us. We must stop treating women like reproductive vessels for making more people to serve the economy, and start reshaping our economies to serve more people and the planet.
“So… we don’t have to have children?”, Nandita Bajaj asked her partner over a decade ago.
Bajaj, originally from India, thought that having kids was an inevitable part of being a woman. “My country is deeply patriarchal and also the most populated. I grew up believing that pregnancy was an essential part of womanhood. Then a conversation with my partner opened my eyes to the liberating realization that it was a choice, not a given. And together, we chose not to,” she says.
But it’s not just conservatives anymore. Now, many progressives are also panicking over an alleged fertility “crisis,” and some feminists even make the case for spending billions to boost birth rates and promote motherhood. Writers at North American media outlets considered culturally liberal are increasingly joining the pronatalist chorus, which has historically been the province of the anti-choice political right.
Rather than fighting falling birth rates and aging demographics, progressives should be working with them to frame policies for a livable future, for example by advancing an equitable safety net ensuring quality of life for all. Progressive flirtation with pronatalism undermines that work. Worse, it normalizes pronatalism.
Pronatalism, the push for women to have more children, has elbowed its way into prominence in public discourse…from negative portrayals of women who don’t consider having a child a viable choice for themselves, to a burgeoning Silicon Valley subculture that advocates having “tons of kids” to save the world, to policy proposals that would further restrict reproductive choice or limit the voting power of the childless.
With their proposed solution, Naidu and Stalin would be rolling back hard-won reproductive rights in the southern states for the self-serving motive of obtaining a “fairer” representation. The admirable alternative to fairer funding allocation would be to champion the rights of North Indian women to reproductive autonomy and the protection of girls from child marriage—policies that would lead to declining fertility there as in the south.