France to offer free fertility checks to all 18 to 25 year olds to combat falling birth rates
France, a country 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 tackle what he called a “plague” of infertility in his country.
These include offering a free ‘fertility check’ to all 18 to 25 year olds, both male and female.
In an interview with magazine Ellehe also mentioned a “campaign” to help women preserve their fertility if they want to have children later in life, such as egg freezing, and a national research project on infertility.
Macron’s campaign, which he alluded to 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 tackle what he called a “plague” of infertility in his country
France’s fertility rate, a national benchmark for the average number of live births per woman, is 1.8, significantly higher than Britain’s, which stands 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 a population needs to replace one generation with the next.
Macron did not set a specific goal for his plan to increase France’s birth rates, instead stating that he wanted the nation to have a “dynamic birth rate.”
He also told Elle that if the French could have as many children as they wanted, the country’s birth rate would be 2.3, but he did not say that was the goal of his campaign.
France’s fertility rate of 1.8 is the lowest the country has recorded since shortly after the end of World War II.
In 1950 this figure averaged three live births per woman.
Experts, and even celebrities like Elon Musk, have been warning for years about the global threat of underpopulation.
Earlier this year, scientists warned that 75 percent of countries would face this demographic problem by 2050.
They warned that the problem is particularly acute in developed Western countries and that countries like Britain could become dependent on immigration to keep their societies and economies running.
Three in four countries face the threat of ‘underpopulation’ by 2050 due to falling birth rates around the world, shock research warned today.
By 2100, this could rise to 97 percent of all countries, in what experts have described as ‘stunning social change’.
Great powers such as Britain and the US will have to become dependent on immigration to avoid the ‘immense’ consequences that the situation threatens, the study in the respected medical journal The Lancet concludes.
Elon Musk (photo), who brags about ‘always hitting the baby drum’, has been warning of a decline in births for years
Without replenishment of an aging population, scientists argue that public services and economic growth are at risk.
Ever-declining birth rates will also put additional pressure on the NHS and social care.
The reasons why people in countries such as France and Great Britain have fewer children on average are complex.
For example, some women simply enjoy the independence that modern society brings compared to a century ago, and choose not to have children.
Others choose to have children later in life and instead focus on their careers during their younger years.
Because fertility is linked to age, this can lead to some women never having children or having fewer children than they planned, even with technologies like in vitro fertilization.
For men, lifestyle factors such as the increasing prevalence of obesity in many countries are also thought to have a downward impact on fertility.
Rising pressure on the cost of living, especially the price of childcare and housing, is another factor putting a damper on couples having children or deciding to have several.