Antinatalist Policy Research Articles

Climate change and anti-natalism: Between the horrible and the unthinkable

There is no longer any doubt that the coming decades will bring serious threats to humanity from anthropogenic climate change. As we have suggested elsewhere, horrible scenarios are far more realistic than non-horrible ones, and science and technology are incapable, especially in our non-ideal world, of equitably distributing wealth, access to resources and adaptations to climate change. In this article, we offer an alternative to these inevitable horrible scenarios. The alternative is to implement either an anti-natalist policy, or procreative beneficence and reproductive rights policies aimed at radically reducing the birth rate. These alternatives, however, are potentially unfair and quite possibly unthinkable to most of humanity.

Government policy and global fertility change: a reappraisal

ABSTRACT The role of government policy in fertility change has been a central inquiry in understanding global demographic changes in the last half century. We return to this inquiry with longitudinal data for over 150 countries from 1976 to 2013 and use fixed-effects models to address common methodological concerns. Our results reveal that while government anti-natalist policies fail to show clear effects for all countries included, they are associated with significantly lower fertility in Asia and Latin America, two regions that have seen the most rapid fertility decline. For pro-natalist policies, which are becoming more popular in recent years, we detect only short-term positive effects, and effects limited to countries where fertility has not sunk below the ultra-low level of 1.4 children per woman. Combined, these results suggest that government policies are important in global fertility change, though the policy impacts vary by geographic location, timing, and fertility level.

Family structure and fertility behaviour among undergraduates of the distant learning institute in Lagos State, Nigeria.

Context/Background: Given the current socio-economic conditions of the Nigerian nation-state, it is logical to say that the resources needed to cater for its ever-growing population are limited and the trend has moved the nation to adopt an anti-natalist policy. However, there is a paucity of empirical studies on the influence of family structure, as an intergenerational factor, on fertility behavior in South-Western Nigeria and thus, this study investigates the association between family structure and fertility behaviour in Lagos. Data Sources and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 185 married undergraduates of the Distance Learning Institute at the University of Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. Multi-stage and simple random sampling was employed in selecting the respondents. Findings: The study revealed that the size of an individual’s family of orientation (O.R. = 1.22) and income (O.R. = 1.40) are predictors of the individual’s fertility and fertility preference. Conclusion: Attention should be given to the socio-economic factors that shape fertility behaviour and the immediate and unmet need for contraception among couples.

Population Policies in Turkey and Demographic Changes on a Social Map

Compared to its past structure, Turkey is now a country with low levels of fertility and mortality. This junction that Turkey now has reached is associated with a number of risks, such as an ageing population, and a decreasing working-age population. The antinatalist policy era of Turkey was followed by a period of maintenance, yet the recent demographic changes formed the basis of a pronatalist population policy from the government’s view. This study discusses the link between demographic change and population policies in Turkey. It further aims to position Turkey spatially in relation to selected countries that are in various stages of their demographic transitions with different population policies, using a multidimensional scaling approach with data on 25 selected countries from the UN. The analysis is based on a 34-year period, 1975-2009, so as to better demonstrate Turkey’s international position on a social map, past and present. Our findings suggest that Turkey’s position on the social map shifted towards developed countries over time in terms of demographic indicators and population policies.

Perspectives on Population in AP® Human Geography

ABSTRACTA study of human geography begins with the human population. In fact, demographic topics frequently relate to other units in the AP Human Geography course. The three main concepts elaborated upon in this article are (1) the demographic transition model, (2) Malthusian theory and its critics, and (3) pronatalist and antinatalist policies that might be implemented by governments in attempts to increase or decrease national populations. The article also suggests appropriate resources and classroom practices that may be used to teach these topics.

From Fighting Underpopulation to Curbing Population Growth: Tracing Colonial Power in German Development Interventions in Tanzania

This paper investigates how colonial power is rearticulated in policy and practice of German development cooperation in Tanzania. Drawing on archives and interviews, it analyses the emergence of interventions with regard to population control and reproductive health during Germany's colonisation of ‘German East Africa’ and compares these interventions to present-day German development assistance in Tanzania. While German policies during colonial rule addressed ‘underpopulation’ and contemporary German development aid stresses population growth to be the problem, this paper finds that racialised, gendered discourses are interconnected with the political economy of population control in both periods. It highlights that colonial power in development cooperation can only be fully comprehended by tracing the continuity of colonial discourses to material practices as well as economic interests of the Global North, and argues that critique of population politics should address population control in general – whether anti- or pro-natalist – as imbued with racism and serving the interests of capital. Such a perspective might allow us to be sensitive to possible future developments in population and reproductive health policy towards the Global South, in which antinatalist (regarding marginalised people) and pronatalist (regarding privileged people) policies run concurrently, as is the case in countries of the Global North today.

Reproducing the nation: the new German population policy and the concept of demographization

The article elaborates the concept of demographization in light of the current revival of population-oriented agendas and demography as an important field of policy consultancy with special emphasis on Germany. It does so by referring to the Foucauldian concepts of biopolitics and governmentality, but also by exploring the limits of these concepts and by integrating them into an intersectional approach, emphasizing racist and classist selectivities and the genealogy of a Malthusian matrix. Moreover, the analysis elaborates a specific approach to reproductive relations as a biopolitical ‘hinge’. The article begins by exposing two empirical phases of demographization in Germany and then introduces the concept of demographization, distinguishing between different levels of critical analysis. Further on, a specific combination of purely quantitative and qualitative/selective rationales is presented as a Malthusian matrix and as central to understanding the processes of demographization. The following section addresses reproductive relations by combining the analysis of an individualizing governmentality of the reproductive self with the analysis of strategies of national-racist and classist exclusions at the biopolitical pole of population. Finally, the author explores how to apply the concept of demographization to transnational programmes of ‘population dynamics’ and anti-natalist policies in the Global South, and introduces further questions for theory development.

Population Policies: An Integrated Approach (Preface to the 2009 Quetelet Symposium on Population Policies)

Population Policies:An Integrated Approach (Preface to the 2009 Quetelet Symposium on Population Policies) Ester L. Rizzi, Catherine Gourbin, and Pau Baizán Background In November 2009 the Research Center on Demography and Societies (Centre de Recherche en Démographie et Societies, Louvain-la-Neuve) organized its 35th Quetelet seminar. The main theme was "Population Policies in Europe and North America." It is in the tradition of Chaire Quetelet seminars to address emerging topics in demography. Of course, the theme of population policies is not new, but it seemed to us and to the colleagues of the Research Center in Louvain that a reformulation of the topic was in progress, and that reflections and propositions were needed. The main theme of the seminar was split into four sub-themes, which were explored and developed over the course of the three-day seminar: 1) the evolution and definition of population policies, 2) migration policies and policies for the integration of migrants, 3) family policies and policies that support fertility, and 4) policies for ageing. Many participants attempted to answer the following critical questions: What are the aims of population policies? How do population policies differ from social policies? Is the efficacy of these policies supported by empirical results? What is the theoretical and ethical background behind these policies? In this paper we summarize and discuss some of the best contributions presented at the 35th Quetelet seminar and stress their contribution to answering the above-mentioned questions. The papers that are summarized below are now part of a special collection1 of papers published in Population Review. Population policies: definitions and ethics When trying to define population policies, one possible "preliminary" definition could be the following: population policies are those policies that affect demographic phenomena such as fertility, migration and ageing or that attempt to adapt societies to their consequences. This definition implies that policies can be active or adaptive. Active population policies can be direct or indirect. In the concluding paper of the special collection, Nico van Nimwegen speaks about how the focus of population policies has shifted over time and argues that population policies in the past that directly attempted to change the course of demographic phenomena, are now, in essence, population-related policies that have socio-economic aims. The new focus becomes particularly evident when referring to the implementation of population policies in the past. At the Chaire Quetelet seminar two contributions, now presented in the special collection, went in this direction: Arianna Caporali and Antonio Golini's paper "Births and Fertility in Interwar Italy: Trends, Images, Policies and Perception" and Frédéric Sandron's study "Réunion in the 1960s and 1970s: A Population Policy Against the Current?" Caporali and Golini point out that the Italian interwar period population policy was part of Mussolini's nationalist objectives and that it took several forms, from financial incentives to penalties for bachelors and emigration. But Mussolini's attempts failed and fertility continued to decline. We could compare the Italian case with France, a well known historical example of pronatalist policies. In France, a persuasive approach was used to convince people that high natality improves the wealth of the nation. This contrasted with the authoritarian approach of the Italian fascist regime presented in Caporali and Golini's paper. In addition, while in Italy population policies were associated with misogyny and racial discrimination, in France the pronatalist argument was combined with a social one: by compensating the cost of children, the policymakers tried to prevent family poverty (Chesnais, 2006). Today, because of the relatively high fertility rate in France, which in 2006 reached two children per woman, France is recognized as an a country that has implemented successful pronatalist policies. The second paper of the special collection, Frédéric Sandron's, "Réunion in the 1960s and 1970s: A Population Policy Against the Current?", also involves direct population policies. Réunion Island's population policy is a peculiar case. Réunion is part of France's territory, but, contrary to metropolitan France, an anti-natalist policy was implemented there. The author explains how debates and charismatic figures led to the conclusion that demographic control was necessary for the socioeconomic...

Informal Social Networks, Sonography and Female Foeticide in India

This article explores the relationship between the ultrasound technology, sex-selective abortions and the culture of reproduction mediated by informal social networks. By informal networks here is meant social/neighbourhood and kinship ties, both as a means and a resource, and the manner these are used by people in the community. The focus is to bring out the manner the informal and social dimensions of relations people have with providers of reproductive medical services and employees of the state, who as members of the same society also share a common cultural perspective and values, are revealed in everyday practice. The article focuses on the multilayered relationship between members of the community and their relationships in organising social and biological reproduction. The deficit of girls in 0-6 age group occurs from a combination of anti-natalist policy, legalised abortion, and illegal foetal sex determination test mediated through informal networks.

Fascism and the Female Form: Performance Art in the Third Reich

Nazi Germany is generally understood to have been a sexually repressive society, and in fundamental social and political ways, it was repressive. The National Socialist Party intervened in the private space of the body to an extent never before experienced and in hitherto unprecedented ways. The state instituted a politics of the body that rendered the individual body a public site whose purpose was to further the larger social organism. In the drive toward the establishment of a pure, thriving Volk, the National Socialist regime conducted a dual campaign, a pronatalist campaign encouraging "healthy" Aryan women to bear and rear children and an antinatalist policy aimed at preventing the reproduction of "undesirable" elements (Jews, Poles, Africans, and the mentally disabled, among others). Whereas pronatalist policies operated through incentives, such as government subsidies, child allowances, tax rebates, and medals for childbearing, antinatalist measures were carried out through repressive laws, including compulsory sterilization of the genetically "inferior," forced abortions, and marriage prohibitions. 1 The body became a social site onto [End Page 164] which political ideals were mapped. The notion of the healthy body as a microcosm for the healthy state was reiterated in the images of the "sacred wife and mother" in officially sanctioned art and promoted in a vast propaganda campaign enjoining women to lend their bodies to the movement to maintain the vitality of the race.

Leta S. Hollingworth on Coercive Pronatalism

In the late 1960s, with the decisive ending of the baby boom not fully apparent, the US Commission on Population Growth and the American Future was pondering whether America needed to adopt an antinatalist policy. Judith Blake, in a background paper for the Commission, argued that such a debate was premature: US society, she asserted, was pervaded by time‐honored pronatalist pressures; free choice infertility did not exist. “People make their ‘voluntary’ reproductive choices in an institutional context that severely constrains them not to remain single, not to choose childlessness, not to bear only one child, and even not to limit themselves to two children.” Her term for that situation was coercive pronatalism. A first step toward reducing population growth, if that was sought, should entail eliminating those constraints, making possible “a fuller expression of human individuality and diversity.” (See Volume VI of the Commission's research reports, Washington DC, 1972.)The article reprinted below, by Leta Stetter Hollingworth, is in many respects an anticipation of such arguments. It is titled “Social devices for impelling women to bear and rear children,” and appeared in American Journal of Sociology, Volume 22, No. 1, July 1916. The author sets out to illustrate “just how the various social institutions have been brought to bear on women” so as to sustain a birth rate sufficient “to offset the wastage of war and disease.” The perceived fertility problem then, much like now but unlike the 1960s, was how to maintain population replacement in the face of individual interests preferring small families or even childlessness. US total fertility early in the twentieth century was around 3, and had been slowly declining for decades; Europe was experiencing the decimation of its youth in World War I.A separate, familial role for women found popular justification in the idea of a maternal instinct. Hollingworth gives scant credence to such an instinct. To her it is a doctrine used in the service of social control, though she concedes a “natural desire for children” that may put a low‐level floor under fertility. For most subsequent researchers, biology has played almost no part in reproductive motivation. In this issue of PDR, however, Caroline Foster argues for a partial restoration of biological influence in the form of a non‐sex‐specific nurturing instinct.Hollingworth was a major figure in American psychology and education in the 1920s and 1930s and a scholar with broad feminist interests. She was born Leta Stetter near Chadron, Nebraska, in 1886. After studying English literature at the University of Nebraska, she moved to New York with her husband, Harry L. Hollingworth, then a graduate student. When finances permitted, she pursued part‐time graduate work at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she received her Ph.D. in educational psychology in 1916 and where, after a short period as a clinical psychologist, she remained as a faculty member for the rest of her life. Her early research challenged prevailing beliefs about the biological bases of gender differences in achievement—for example, the theory that women's abilities were more narrowly distributed than men's. Later, her research interests turned to child development—in particular, adolescence and the development and education of gifted and exceptionally gifted (IQ>180) children. In these areas she had strong and lasting influence, her books being regarded as classics. She died of cancer in 1939, aged 53. She was survived by her husband, also a psychologist, who wrote a memoir of her: Leta Stetter Hollingworth: A Biography (University of Nebraska Press, 1943; Anker, Boston, 1990).The article reprinted here was among her earliest publications, appearing the year she received her Ph.D. It is an almost casual piece, exhibiting her easy, limpid style and light touch, backed by a very sharp mind. She takes a textbook treatment of social control and a passing remark by its author and elaborates them into a cogent and witty analysis of the sociology of fertility.

The rapid reproducers paradox: Population control and individual procreative rights

In this article, I consider the impact of population policies on individual rights (in a very broad sense of the word), a topic that has received disproportionately little attention in debates on the legitimacy of population rights. I first concentrate on arguments in favour of very radical antinatalist policies and assess these on the basis of rather strict conditions that are typical for liberal democratic morality, but I also show that many objections to these policies can apply to far less radical policies and under far less stringent conditions. My main objection to population policies is that they create a paradox: although they may be beneficial overall, they punish individuals who do not contribute to overpopulation and reward those who do.

Women, Politics, and Global Management

The United Nations (UN) sponsored three decennial world population conferences over the period 1974-94. The first such conference was held in 1974 in Bucharest, Romania, at which the North and the South became polarized over the importance of demographics relative to other development concerns. Northern countries proposed vigorous family planning programs to control rapid population growth, while many Southern governments, led by China and India, argued instead that higher priority should be given to socioeconomic development and the more equitable distribution of resources between the North and South. After a decade of extremely rapid population growth, however, most Southern countries had adopted antinatalist policies by the second world population conference held in 1984 in Mexico City. While Southern countries had adopted the 1974 Northern view of world population growth, widespread political and religious conservatism in the US at the time of the second conference had the US delegation opposing abortion and being neutral on demographic factors. The US argued that private markets would solve many population problems and the US government even withdrew financial support to several international organizations, such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the UN Population Fund. The third decennial UN-sponsored world population conference, the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, Egypt, however, succeeded in shifting concern about world demographics into a gender-sensitive, people-centered approach of sustainable human development and bringing sensitive and ideologically charged population issues into the public domain. It was also a landmark in the management of complex global problems such as population. The international consensus achieved in Cairo and summarized in a World Program of Action was truly a monumental achievement. The authors note the shift in rhetoric to concerns about women's status and reproductive health, the involvement of nongovernmental organizations, and the unfinished agenda of the World Program of Action.

Towards a stationary population in Singapore.

The aim of the national population control programme in Singapore is to work towards a stationary population in the twenty-first century. In this paper we will describe the methodology used to simulate such a stationary population and discuss the results and implications of the simulation exercise. We can expect this stationary population to be attained by the year 2030 when the size of the population will stand at about 3.4 million. In moving towards this stationary state, the number of births will rise slightly from about 42, 000 in 1985 to 45, 000 in 2030, but the number of deaths will rise steeply from about 13, 000 to 45, 000 during the same period. The ageing process of the population is expected to continue rapidly until the stationary state in 2030 when the proportion of persons aged 60 years and over will constitute more than one-fifth of the total population. Singapore is now faced with the difficulty of achieving the demographic goal of a stationary population because fertility has remained consistently below replacement level since 1975. It is necessary to relax, or eliminate, the present strong anti-natalist policies so that fertility can have a chance of moving back up to replacement level.

Singapore Fertility Attains Record Low; Antinatalist Policies Are Questioned

Singapore Fertility Attains Record Low; Antinatalist Policies Are Questioned

Sounding board. The politics of contraception: the view from Beijing.

Since China contains 1/4 of the world's population, what happens there with regard to limitation of fertility has significance for the whole world. Over the past decade, much has changed in China insofar as politics and the practice of birth control are concerned. At present, China is the only Communist country to support and practice an antinatalist policy, and, in fact, maintains the most stringent antinatalist policy in the world. The national aim has become the 1-child family, and there are strong incentives (food, health care, etc,) towards this end. To achieve this, China has directed much technical effort towards contraceptive production. Original Chinese products have been the paper pill in which the steroids are absorbed on water-soluble paper and Anordrin, a synthetic steroid known as the "vacation pill." A significant contribution also by the Chinese is a male contraceptive pill derived from gossypol. This particular contraceptive has been associated with serious side effects and it remains to be seen whether this work will result in a useful antifertility agent for men. The author suggests that it is now time to encourage collaboration between Western and Chinese researchers, especially since the Chinese have taken the initiative in enlisting interaction with foreign scientific groups, especially with the Special Programme of Research, Development, and Research Training in Human Reproduction of WHO. WHO is presently setting up 2 institutes of research on methods to control fertility in Shanghai and Beijing and Chinese scientists are involved in the WHO task forces on IUDs, orals, and postcoital and plant agents. Clearly, China is placing tremendous emphasis on fertility control and it seems that the U.S. and the Washington politicians in particular could learn from politicians in Beijing.

Migration and Development in Thailand

rT IME in which to stave off widespread poverty in Thailand is running out. The government's antinatalist policy, formulated in 1970, sought to lower the annual growth rate of the population from about 3.2 percent in I970 to 2.4 percent in I980. The Third Economic and Social Development Plan (1972-1976) aimed at an annual growth rate of 2.5 percent in 1976 through voluntary family planring. The population of Thailand in 1970 was officially reckoned at 34.4 million, though Thai authorities considered this a gross underestimate. Even if voluntary family planning is practiced religiously, the benefits will not be realized before standards of living deteriorate. National development on a grand scale therefore appears to be the only stopgap. Development has been pursued with some urgency in recent years, but at a scale less than grand. It may be too late to implement plans that will avert countrywide dislocations, but the attempt will be made. This effort must be realistic; the plans for development must be based on an objective assessment of the condition of the Thai people. A telling characteristic of the condition of a population is its readiness to migrate. My aim is to provide a fair evaluation of recent internal migration in Thailand so that realistic development policies may be formulated by the government.

The new population debate.

IN THE YEAR 1790 the Venetian monk Gianmaria Ortes reached the conclusion that a zero population growth would eventually prove necessary, since infinite expansion is impossible within a finite world. His demographic projections pointing to the likelihood of a doubling of human population within a generation of thirty years were concurred in by Thomas Malthus in 1798. In the latter's Essay on the Principle of Population As It Affects the Future Improvement of Society, Malthus maintained that whereas population increased by geometric proportion, food and economic output remained within the confines of arithmetic proportion. The two clergymen had entered into a debate whose beginnings trailed back to the mid-seventeenth century. The discussion involved a mercantilist populationism that favored large families and deplored celibacy as a principal check to population growth. The demographic debate continued down to the early 1950's at an academic pace, with occasional acerbic exchanges between pronatalist and antinatalist policy makers and religious leaders. At mid-century, however, a realization of the possibly disastrous proportions of the population increase in relation to local and world resources suddenly dawned upon a number of concerned individuals, voluntary organizations, and officials involved in government assistance programs. One result was a shift in objective to development rather than assistance projects on the part of foreign-aid organizations, including both international and governmental agencies and U.S. Catholic War Relief Services, Caritas Internationalis, and other ecclesiastical and private groups engaged in uplifting depressed populations in rural and slum areas of the

Law and Family Planning

Review of the relationship of law and population an examination of current laws governing birth control and family planning in countries around the world and an analysis of the legal problems and issues involved in future population control efforts are presented. Population characteristics and growth patterns are inextricably tied to the law of the State and it is emphasized that a very broad range of laws influence population beyond the immediate legislation on family planning. Besides laws on birth control and abortion regulations on advertising education marriage age of majority tax and health benefits for families and children all influence population growth. Present laws dealing directly or indirectly with population in most countries are characterized by contradiction and disparity vague language problems in enforcement and an inability to evaluate their influence and effect. There is an urgent need for the country to decide if it desires an antinatalist policy and if so to examine its laws so that they present a unified and active approach. All governments must face 4 major issues in law and population in the future: 1) the delineation of the extent of laws effect on population; 2) the compatibility of social welfare programs and population control; 3) the need for motivational as well as availability help in family planning; and 4) the protection of individual human rights while meeting the collective need.

NEEDED RESEARCH ON CURRENT POPULATION TRENDS

Modern demography is criticized for its emphasis on reproductive biology and its failure to substantially incorporate the sociological determinents of fertility into attitudinal and contraceptive research. Current studies relate most to psychological theories while the prime factor in classical analysis of fertility declines in Western countries is industrialization which affords new options for social mobility and consequently motivates the more ambitious to reduce family responsibilities. Based in part on market research methods applied to a new type of consumer demand current antinatalist policy concentrates on the availability of contraceptive and family size attitudes. This family planning tactic has effectively cut fertility only where the socioeconomic environment itself generated antinatalist attitudes--e.g. a few atypical countries transitional to economic development (Taiwan South Korea Puerto Rico) and the minuscule westernized elites of the major underdeveloped countries. A crucial example is the failure of Indias 20-year program to completely reduce fertility rates. Research facilitating changes in institutional structures which would be antinatalist in effect includes the following topics: 1) illegitimate births; 2) socialization in family norms; 3) joint and nuclear family structure; 4) nonmarriage; 5) childless marriage; 6) age at marriage; 7) family subsidies; 8) antinatalist payments; 9) working wives.