A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #369 - Antipatriarchy - Reproduction: Pro-natalism in the Service of Capitalism and War (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Pro-natalism is the twofold idea that the population size must be 
increased and that this must be done by increasing the number of births. 
In 2025, in France, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births 
for the first time since the end of World War II, and this angered 
everyone. The possibility of a population decline instead of the usual 
increase has reawakened the energy of our leaders. ---- We must return 
to a fundamental question: why increase the population size? In these 
times of climate catastrophes and the general poisoning of human beings 
and the planet to produce more industrial food, one might argue that 
accepting a decrease in the number of inhabitants of the Earth would be 
a rather good idea.

More soldiers and labor
Wars, whether between countries or civil wars, generally leave our 
governments indifferent. But the invasion of Ukraine is different: it's 
in Europe, and it's white people who are being attacked. So, a martial 
and warlike atmosphere prevails; children must be sent to die on the 
front lines. As General Fabien Mandon declared on November 18, 2025: "If 
our country falters because it's not ready to accept losing its 
children, because, let's be honest, because of economic hardship due to 
the focus on defense production, then we are at risk."

Moreover, fewer workers means more money to be found to ensure everyone 
has an income, since raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations is 
obviously unthinkable for those in power. And it means less production 
and less profit for capitalists. Panic ensues: the population must be 
increased. There is, however, one advantage to the declining birth rate 
that the government immediately recognized: fewer children mean less 
need for schools, colleges, and high schools. We immediately heard 
announcements of school closures and teacher job cuts.

A second question is how to increase a country's population. The answer 
seems simple: there need to be fewer deaths than arrivals. And regarding 
arrivals, there's a solution that would suit everyone: accept a larger 
number of exiles into the country, instead of letting them drown in the 
Mediterranean Sea or be confined to camps in border-guarding countries. 
Against a backdrop of racism and narrow, cruel nationalism, this is 
obviously not the solution advocated by our leaders and thinkers. We 
need to increase the birth rate! Women need to have babies. Not all 
women, of course.

In 2023, the Regional Health Agency of Mayotte announced that tubal 
ligation would be systematically offered to young women in Mayotte and 
the Comoros. While we know that if women have access to education, 
healthcare, housing, and employment, they naturally have fewer children. 
And besides, is the problem in Mayotte the number of children or the 
territory's abandonment to poverty?

Women's well-being... so they have babies.
So, the third question: how do we increase the birth rate? Macron had a 
brilliant idea: combat infertility, which he called in early 2025 
"demographic rearmament," war and pronatalism in the same phrase. The 
impact of infertility on the decline in the number of births per woman 
is debated by researchers, but not its underlying causes.

For women, infertility stems primarily from a later desire to have 
children. For men, it is biological: a global decline in sperm count and 
an equally striking increase in testicular cancer, which is now the 
leading cause of cancer among young men. Pollution, processed food... 
the causes, linked to our lifestyles and production methods, are not 
being discussed. The fight against infertility is beginning, with 
sixteen measures announced, including a letter to 29-year-olds 
encouraging them to have children. There are also gamete preservation 
centers and initiatives to combat polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and 
endometriosis.

Pretended to be a "major priority of the five-year term," women's rights 
only interest the government when it comes to supplying the military and 
industry. -- Daniel Maunoury

For decades, women have complained about inadequate or even nonexistent 
care for these diseases, but now we're going to address it, not for 
their comfort, but so they can have babies. As for egg freezing, that's 
quite interesting. In 2024, in the United States, 27% of companies with 
more than 5,000 employees and a third of groups with more than 20,000 
people offered it to their female employees. An efficient long-term 
strategy: work hard for as long as possible, even after age 29 when the 
biological clock starts ticking, and then bring children back home. 
Double exploitation: capitalist productivity and children, of course.

A strike of the wombs.
Measures will also be taken for the perinatal health of babies and 
mothers. For the past ten years, with the dismantling of healthcare 
services, the infant mortality rate (deaths of babies before the age of 
one) has risen to 4.1 per thousand, placing our country 23rd out of 27 
European countries. There are significant disparities, with more deaths 
among the poor than elsewhere: Seine-Saint-Denis, French Guiana, 
Mayotte. The leading cause of maternal mortality during the first year 
of a child's life is suicide. Women are isolated and abandoned by 
healthcare systems driven by profit. All of this should be rectified so 
that women will want to give babies to Capital and to war.

A few days after the launch of the plan to combat infertility, the 
fact-finding mission on the causes and consequences of the declining 
birth rate proposed economic measures that Parliament will now work on: 
EUR250 per month per child, regardless of income (unlike current family 
allowances), and starting with the first child; a zero-interest loan for 
a first home; improvements to parental leave and other leave for special 
occasions; and other forms of assistance. All good ideas for a more 
pleasant life. We could rejoice if the goal weren't the exploitation of 
social needs for the production of children. Children who may end up in 
overcrowded classrooms, without support staff, fathers and grandfathers 
who commit abuse, and who will largely live in poverty... Nothing is 
planned for them beyond childbirth. Oh yes, there is the return of 
mandatory military service!

In the 19th century, neo-Malthusians advocated birth control as a means 
of emancipating the working classes (the bourgeoisie were already doing 
so) and easing the burden on women. They used the expression "Strike of 
the Wombs" to call for an end to the production of "cannon fodder" and 
"employee fodder," which only benefited the dominant class. Is this an 
expression worth reviving?

Christine (UCL Sarthe)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Reproduction-Le-natalisme-au-service-du-capitalisme-et-de-la-guerre
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