The French government has launched a series of measures to help slow declining birth rates, including writing to all 29-year-olds with advice on improving their chances of having children.
Almost one in eight couples in France is struggling to conceive.
The French Health Ministry says the aim of the plan fertilité is to enable young adults make informed personal choices, “without coercion or social pressure,” about reproductive health, fertility and contraception, and to avoid later regret in an ‘if only I had known’ scenario.
The action comes as birth rates in France have dropped to 1.56, their lowest level since 1918. A figure of 2.1 is needed to sustain a population.
Last year, more deaths than births were recorded for the first time since World War Two.
Some, however, are not impressed by the initiative.
Paul Brunstein-Compard, a 29-year-old stand-up comedian in Paris, said the idea smacks of “treating them like children”.
He also voiced environmental concerns.
“Procreation is creating one more human who is going to pollute and consume. It is a secondary reason for me, but I have friends who are clear they do not want children because of that,” he added.
