UNFPA Solution to Low Fertility: Legal Abortion, Family Redefinition

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WASHINGTON, D.C. June 13 (C-Fam) The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched its flagship annual State of World Population report this week.  While this year’s report examined the causes of low birthrates, which is becoming a crisis in many countries, UNFPA’s policy prescription, as usual, was to maximize “reproductive autonomy,” including ensuring access to contraception and abortion and allowing assisted fertility treatments for single people and same-sex couples.

One main message of the report is that people who would ideally like to have children are having fewer, or none at all.  “What we find is an unfulfilled desire” to have the number of children people would like to have, said Shalini Randeria, who served as an advisor on the report.  She said that the main reasons people cited for not having their desired larger families were economic.  Others cited issues finding suitable marriage partners.  Young people in particular reported their feelings of pessimism and uncertainty about the future impacting their reduced desire for children.

Randeria spoke at a UNFPA report launch event in Geneva, joined by ambassadors from Sweden, Spain, and Somalia.  Their remarks illustrated the deep divide between the priorities of high-income, low-fertility European nations and a low-income, conflict-afflicted African country whose birthrate has fallen but still remains above replacement-level.

When asked what his government was doing to help people have the larger families they reported wanting, the Swedish ambassador immediately cited his country’s commitment to “sexual and reproductive health and rights” (SRHR), including “access to modern contraceptives, safe and legal abortion,” and sex education.  He also noted Sweden’s robust social safety net including paid parental leave and government-funded child care.

The Spanish ambassador noted his country’s fertility rate is “one of the lowest in the world,” and that the gap between that figure and women’s desired family size is one of the widest.  He spoke about Spain’s abortion laws which were recently made even more liberal by allowing minors to access abortions without parental notification. He said Spain was promoting “diverse family models” including LGBTQI+.  He said that Spain had taken some measure to redistribute “the burden of care” by providing “equal and mandatory” parental leave. “It has to be mandatory because otherwise the men would simply escape their responsibilities.”

Asked about “pushback” to gender equality, he expressed worry about “hyper-conservative” narratives resurfacing, including the idea of the family as a “monolith.” As for narrowing the gap between desired and actual fertility in Spain, he admitted they were “not very successful so far.”

In contrast, the Somali ambassador spoke about the devastation of almost three decades of war in her country.  She pointed out that, when it comes to Western interventions, “in places highly influenced by religion, contraception is not just the answer.”  She pointed to the lack of a lack of sanitation and appropriate medical care, which makes childbirth riskier.

The UNFPA moderator, noting that she was in the presence of two European ambassadors who prioritize SRHR, asked the Somali ambassador what her “wish list” would include for her country.  She made two requests: improved access to education and more health facilities for women, with appropriate equipment.

Like the gap between people’s ideal and actual family size, the gap between the priorities of UNFPA and its European allies and those of poorer, more conservative, and more fertile countries remains uncomfortably wide.

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