Editing Birth rate (section)

== Population control ==
{{main article|Human population planning}}
In the 20th century, several authoritarian governments sought either to increase or to decrease the birth rates, sometimes through forceful intervention. One of the most notorious [[natalist]] policies was that in [[communist Romania]] in 1967–1990, during the time of communist leader [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]], who adopted a very aggressive natalist policy which included outlawing abortion and contraception, routine pregnancy tests for women, [[Tax on childlessness|taxes on childlessness]], and legal discrimination against childless people. This policy has been depicted in movies and documentaries (such as ''[[4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days]]'', and ''[[Children of the Decree]]''). These policies temporarily increased birth rates for a few years, but this was followed by a decline due to the increased use of [[illegal abortion]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://humupd.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/6/590 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110405080027/http://humupd.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/6/590 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-04-05 |title=Europe the continent with the lowest fertility &#124; Human Reproduction Update &#124; Oxford Academic |website=Humupd.oxfordjournals.org |access-date=2017-03-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author1=Mihai Horga |author2=Caitlin Gerdts |author3=Malcolm Potts |url=http://jfprhc.bmj.com/content/39/1/2.full |title=The remarkable story of Romanian women's struggle to manage their fertility &#124; Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare |journal=Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care |date=January 2013 |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=2–4 |doi=10.1136/jfprhc-2012-100498 |pmid=23296845 |s2cid=21089643 |access-date=2017-03-11|doi-access=free }}</ref> Ceaușescu's policy resulted in over 9,000 deaths of women due to illegal abortions,<ref name="Kligman short">Kligman, Gail. "Political Demography: The Banning of Abortion in Ceausescu's Romania". In Ginsburg, Faye D.; Rapp, Rayna, eds. ''Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction.'' Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995 :234-255. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE KIE/49442.</ref> large numbers of children put into [[Romanian orphanages]] by parents who could not cope with raising them, [[street children]] in the 1990s (when many orphanages were closed and the children ended on the streets), and [[overcrowding]] in homes and schools. Ultimately, this aggressive natalist policy led to a generation who eventually led the [[Romanian Revolution]] which overthrew and [[Trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu#Execution|executed him]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Freakonomics|last=Levitt & Dubner|first=Steven & Stephen|publisher=Penguin Group|year=2005|isbn=9780141019017|location=London|page=107}}</ref>

In stark contrast to Ceaușescu's natalist policy was China's [[one child policy]], in effect from 1978 to 2015, which included abuses such as [[forced abortion]]s.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-18435126 |title=China forced abortion photo sparks outrage - BBC News |work=BBC News |date=14 June 2012 |access-date=2017-03-11}}</ref> This policy has also been deemed responsible for the common practice of [[sex-selective abortion]] which led to an imbalanced [[sex ratio]] in the country. Given strict family size limitations and a preference for sons, girls became unwanted in China because they were considered as depriving the parents of the chance of having a son. With the progress of prenatal sex-determination technologies and induced abortion, the one-child policy gradually turned into a one-son policy.<ref name="Bulte, Heerink, & Zhang, 2011">{{cite journal |last1=Bulte |first1=E |last2=Heerink |first2=N |last3=Zhang |first3=X |title=China's one-child policy and 'the mystery of missing women': ethnic minorities and male-biased sex ratios. |journal=Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics |year=2011 |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=0305–9049 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0084.2010.00601.x |s2cid=145107264}}</ref>

In many countries, the steady decline in birth rates over the past decades can largely be attributed to the significant gains in women's freedoms, such as tackling [[forced marriage]] and [[child marriage]], access to [[contraception]], equal access to education, and increased socioeconomic opportunities. Women of all economic, social, religious and educational persuasions are choosing to have fewer children as they are gaining more control over their own [[reproductive rights]]. Apart from more children living into their adult years, women are often more ambitious to take up education and paid work outside the home, and to live their own lives rather than just a life of reproduction and unpaid domestic work.<ref>{{Cite book|title=People Quake|last=Pearse|first=Fred|publisher=Eden Project Books|year=2010|isbn=9781905811342|location=London|pages=P131}}</ref> Birth rates have fallen due to the introduction of [[family planning]] clinics and other access to contraception.

In Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, women are less likely to have two children (or more) than they were before 1999, according to Australian demographer [[John Caldwell (demographer)|Jack Caldwell]]. Bangladeshi women eagerly took up contraceptives, such as condoms and the pill, according to a study in 1994 by the World Bank.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}} The study proved that family planning could be carried out and accepted practically anywhere. Caldwell also believes that agricultural improvements led to the need for less labour. Children not needed to plough the fields would be of surplus and require some education, so in turn, families become smaller and women are able to work and have greater ambitions.<ref>{{Cite book|title=People Quake|last=Pearse|first=Fred|publisher=Eden Project Books|year=2010|isbn=9781905811342|location=London|pages=P133–136}}</ref> Other examples of non-coercive family planning policies are Ethiopia, Thailand and Indonesia.

[[Myanmar]] was controlled until 2011 by an austere military junta, intent on controlling every aspect of people's lives.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}  The generals wanted the country's population doubled. In their view, women's job was to produce babies to power the country's labour force, so family planning was vehemently opposed. The women of Burma opposed this policy, and Peter McDonald of the Australian National University argues that this gave rise to a [[black market]] trade in contraceptives, smuggled in from neighbouring Thailand.<ref>{{Cite book|title=People Quake|last=Pearse|first=Fred|publisher=Eden Project Books|year=2010|isbn=9781905811342|location=London|pages=P136}}</ref>

In 1990, five years after the [[Iraq-Iran war]] ended, Iran saw the fastest recorded fall in fertility in world history. Revolution gave way to consumerism and westernization. With TVs and cars came condoms and birth control pills. A generation of women had been expected to produce soldiers to fight Iraq, but the next generation of women could choose to enjoy some newfound luxuries. During the war, the women of Iran averaged about 8 children each, a ratio the hard-line Islamic President [[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]] wanted to revive. As of 2010, the birth rate of Iran is 1.7 babies per woman. Some observers claim this to be a triumph of Western values of freedom for women against [[Islamic state|states with Islamic values]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=People Quake|last=Pearse|first=Fred|publisher=Eden Project Books|year=2010|isbn=9781905811342|location=London|pages=P137–139}}</ref>

Islamic clerics are also having less influence over women in other Muslim countries. In the past 30 years Turkey's [[Total fertility rate|fertility rate]] of children per woman has dropped from 4.07 to 2.08. Tunisia has dropped from 4.82 to 2.14 and Morocco from 5.4 to 2.52 children per woman.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/australia-population/|title=worldmeters|last=Staff|date=22 October 2016|website=www.worldmeters.info|access-date=2016-10-22}}</ref>

Latin America, of predominately Catholic faith, has seen the same trends of falling fertility rates. Brazilian women are having half the children compared to 25 years ago: a rate of 1.7 children per woman. The Vatican now has less influence over women in other hard-line Catholic countries. Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru have all seen significant drops in fertility in the same period, all going from over six to less than three children per woman. Forty percent of married Brazilian women are choosing to get sterilised after having children. Some observers claim this to be a triumph of modern Western values of freedom for women against states with Catholic values.<ref>{{Cite book|title=People Quake|last=Pearse|first=Fred|publisher=Eden Project Books|year=2010|isbn=9781905811342|location=London|pages=P140}}</ref>