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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A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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