As Birth Rates Plummet, Women’s Autonomy Will Be Even More at Risk

History tells us that all freedom is conditional. In 1920, the Soviet Union became the first country in the world to legalize abortion as part of a socialist commitment to women’s health and well-being. 16 years later, that decision was reversed when Stalin came to power and realized that the birth rate was declining.

The pressure on all nations to maintain their population levels has never gone away. But in 2025, that demographic crisis is about to get crunchier—and the casualty will be gender rights. in both United States of America And UKThe rate at which babies are born has been falling for 15 years. Fertility rates have already fallen to 1.3 in Japan, Poland and Canada. In China and Italy, it is 1.2. South Korea ranks lowest in the world 0.72. Research published by The Lancet Medical Journal predicts that by the year 2100, approx Every country on the planet Not enough offspring will be produced to maintain its population size.

A good deal of this is because women have greater access to contraception, are better educated than ever before, and are pursuing careers that mean they are more likely to avoid or delay having children. Parents are investing more in each of their children. The patriarchal expectation that women should be little more than child bearers is thankfully breaking down.

But the main dilemma remains: How do countries make more babies? Governments have responded with requests and incentives to encourage families to give birth. There is Hungary Income tax is abolished For mothers under 30 years of age. In 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was seen Crying at the television As she called on the National Conference of Mothers to play their part in stopping the declining birth rate. In Italy, Premier Giorgia Meloni has backed a campaign to at least reach out Half a million births a year by 2033.

As these measures fail to have their intended effect, however, the pressure on women is taking a more dire turn. Conservative pro-natalist movement promoting old-fashioned nuclear families with many children, only possible if women give birth earlier. This ideology At least in part that informs the devastating clampdown on abortion access in some US states. Anyone who thinks abortion rights have nothing to do with population concerns should remember that in the summer of 2024, US Senate Republicans also voted against abortion. Contraception is a federal right. This same worldview feeds into the growing backlash against sexual and gender minorities, whose existence for some threatens the traditional family. The most extreme pro-natalists Also includes white supremacists and eugenicists.

The more nations worry about birth rates, the greater the risk to gender rights. For example, the government in China has taken A strongly anti-feminist position In recent years, President Xi Jinping told a meeting of the All-China Women’s Federation in 2023 that women should “actively build a new culture of marriage and childbearing.”

For now, most women can at least have some choice if and when they have children, and how many. But there is no telling how far some countries can go to increase their population levels as fertility rates fall below replacement levels. 2025 looks like a year where their choice may well be taken away.