Updated March 7, 2025 at 6:25 p.m.
WARSAW — Declining birth rates are a major societal problem for multiple countries around the world. Typically, the reasons given for this demographic crisis are economic or lifestyle, where couples choose to not have children (or limit to one child) because they either can’t afford raising them or prefer to maintain their freedom.
Yet increasingly there are signs that the baby shortage may also be the result of a subtle but potent form of social movement by women refusing to adhere to the traditional gender role of childbearing.
Poland’s social stipends
In Poland, births are the lowest rate since the end of World War II, undermining the country’s economic growth, and ever resistant to the government’s years-long push to incentive families to have children. Such measures included the 500+ (later increased to 800+) a government program introduced by the outgoing Law and Justice party, which promised a monthly stipend of 500 złoty (about 115 euro) per child to families with children. Though the program was approved by 70% of Poles, it didn’t have the intended effect of boosting birth rates, which instead dropped by 11% between October 2022 and September 2023.
In my generation, young women took marriage and children for granted.
Amid this demographic crisis, former Prime Minister of Poland, and current leader of the Law and Justice Party, Jarosław Kaczyński, faced intense backlash after claiming in an interview with Interia.pl that women in Poland do not give birth because they drink too much.
“It’s largely a cultural issue”, Kaczyński said, adding that “In my generation, young women took marriage and children for granted.”
The comments not only sparked an outcry from women’s groups, but also prompted some to find alternative explanations, framing the demographic crisis in other terms. “Polish women do not want to give birth to children because they do not feel safe,” said Member of the Sejm Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, who cited “lack of financial stability”, and lack of affordable housing options as the defining reasons behind this. “They are afraid to get pregnant because they are afraid that the doctor will not help them if their fetus is irreversibly damaged,” she added, citing the 2020 decision by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal to ban abortions in the case of “severe fetal abnormalities.”
In spite of the mass participation in recent national protests, which were compared to Poland’s legendary Solidarność (Solidarity) movement that helped overthrow communism in the 1980s, the abortion law was upheld and Poland remains one of two EU countries (along with Malta) to continue to have highly restrictive abortion laws.
Women’s choice
Women can now only have abortions when their life is considered to be at risk, or in the case of rape or incest. Once again, the Polish state’s decision had the opposite effect than intended. While ahead of the court’s decision, Kantar polls reported that 53% of Poles supported abortion up to 12 weeks on demand; after the ruling, 73% of Poles responded that they did not support the ruling. Even politicians who were once supportive of the ruling, including former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, have now backtracked. “The application to the Constitutional Tribunal in this case was a mistake”, he said.
It may take years to gauge its deeper impact on the desire of women to have children.
Though it sought demographic growth in Poland, the former PiS government also liquidated state funding for in vitro fertilization procedures, which are in opposition to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Many women worldwide are choosing to have children at a later date, the popularity of these procedures has increased, and in Poland specifically, 55% of women give birth after age 30.
Combined with the outward resentment towards the government policies, these measures have made it more difficult for women who want children to have them past a certain age range, further impacting Polish demographics.
It is unclear if Poland’s new centrist government will try to overturn the abortion law, but it may take years to gauge its deeper impact on the desire of women to have children. And elsewhere in the world, demographers and politicians alike should not forget that the decision to have children will, ever more, be in the hands of the world’s women.
Turkey blames feminism
Since 2008, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has urged families to have at least three children, linking declining birth rates to societal decay and blaming feminism for undermining traditional values. His government has reinforced this stance through policies promoting conservative family roles, financial incentives for childbirth, and restrictions on reproductive rights.
Despite these measures, Turkey’s birth rate continues to decline: In May last year, Istanbul-based independent weekly newspaper Oksijen reported on the country’s birth rate being at the lowest level since 1965, reaching 958,000 births in 2023 with a fertility rate of 1.51 — well below the replacement level of 2.1.
Economic instability is a major factor, as inflation and soaring housing costs make child-rearing unaffordable. Additionally, many young people, particularly women, are prioritizing education and careers over early motherhood, leading Erdoğan’s to single out “feminism” as a contributing factor to the lack of babies.
The government’s restrictions on contraception have not reversed the trend but have instead limited women’s reproductive autonomy. Turkey ranks poorly in contraceptive access compared to other European nations, demonstrating that reduced reproductive rights do not necessarily lead to higher birth rates.
*Originally published March 7, 2024, this article was updated March 7, 2025 with enriched media and news about Turkey.
