Denial of the right to procreate

Limitation of fertility rights
Denial of right to found a family

Nature

By means of coercion such as loss of maternal and child health benefits or educational assistance, tax benefits, or the imposition of penalties for going beyond a given number of children, governments deny their citizens the right to procreate. Subtle tactics such as antinatalist propaganda campaigns and/or quotas assigned to family planning workers are also employed.

Incidence

China's One Child Policy is an extreme example of governmental intervention into procreation. Women required a permit from their local communist party official in order to become legally pregnant. These permits were strictly rationed in each area, and the couple observed to see they did not become pregnant before their permitted time. Any woman who became pregnant without permission was subjected to harassment and even deprived of her liberty until the pregnancy was aborted.

Claim

The individual's right to procreate is based on the fundamental tenet underlying all human rights - freedom of choice. Men and women should have the right to freely decide the number and spacing of their children and the right to the information, education, and means to do so.

Counter-claim

Governments have a responsibility to provide people with improved standards of living, and population size and growth obviously affect those standards. Thus, if a government feels that an increase in population will hinder basic living improvements, it should have the prerogative to inform and try to coerce its people against procreation.