You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Europe
France to offer all 18 to 25-year-olds free fertility checks to combat falling birth rates
2024-05-09
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] France, a nation so famous for its lovers that it has a kiss named after it, needs help making babies.

That's according to President Emmanuel Macron, who has announced a sweeping series of measures to address what he called a 'scourge' of infertility in his country.

These include an offer of a free 'fertility check-up' to all 18 to 25-year-olds, both male and female.

In an interview with magazine Elle, he also mentioned a 'campaign' to help women preserve their fertility if they want to have children later in life, like egg freezing, as well as a national research project into infertility.

Mr Macron's campaign, which he hinted at in January when he called for a 'demographic rearmament', comes despite France having one of the highest birth rates in Western Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a sweeping series of measures to address what he called a 'scourge' of infertility in his country
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a sweeping series of measures to address what he called a 'scourge' of infertility in his country
Mr Macron hinted people would be reimbursed by state health insurance, so they could get a 'establish a complete assessment'.

This is thought to include semen analysis and ovarian reserve.

He said: 'We are going to organise campaigns in favour of oocyte self-preservation for women who want to have children later in life.'

France's fertility rate, a national measure of the average number of live births per woman, stands at 1.8, significantly above the UK's which sits at 1.5, according to the latest UN-backed data.

Both figures are below what scientists call the 'fertility replacement level' of 2.1 – the amount needed for a population to replace one generation with the next.

Mr Macron hasn't set a specific goal for his plan to boost France's birth rates, instead stating he wanted the nation to have a 'dynamic birth rate'.

He also told Elle that if French people were able to have as many children as they wanted, the nation's birth rate would 2.3, but he didn't state this was the objective of his campaign.

France's fertility rate of 1.8 is the lowest the country has recorded since shortly after the end of WWII.

In 1950 the figure stood at an average of three live births per woman.

Experts, and even celebrities like Elon Musk, have been warning about the global threat of underpopulation for years.

Earlier this year scientists warned 75 per cent of countries would face this demographic problem by 2050.

They warned the problem is particularly dire in developed Western nations and countries like the UK could become reliant on immigration to keep their societies and economies running.

Three in four countries face the threat of 'underpopulation' by 2050 because of the world's plummeting birth rates, shock research warned today.

By 2100 this could rise to 97 per cent of all nations, in what experts have described as a 'staggering social change'.

Powerhouses such as Britain and the US will have to become reliant on immigration to avoid the 'immense' consequences the situation threatens, the study in the respected medical journal The Lancet concluded.
Fecundity follows social conditions. I can’t imagine France’s birth rate — or England’s, or anywhere else in Europe’s — would improve until law and order, on one hand, and a dynamic economy, on the other are restored to something like what was seen during Edwardian times. What the Europeans would call liberal, and we Americans call libertarian, mostly meaning small government.
Posted by:Skidmark

#5  French, the same folks that brought you the birth control pill
Posted by: 746   2024-05-09 22:17  

#4  I think the imported muzz are reliable Joe votes. I suspect most of the tuition people will either be sleeping late, getting coffee or just too baked to vote.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2024-05-09 13:28  

#3  Aren't their Muslimbs provide enough?
Posted by: Grom the Reflective   2024-05-09 13:18  

#2  They surely have free abortions as well. Not sure I would want the government involved in my fertility.
Posted by: Super Hose   2024-05-09 12:29  

#1  As opposed to free abortions in this country.
Posted by: Uleating Theger5049   2024-05-09 11:51  

00:00