France Wants Children, But Does Not Value the Family

While President Macron has been relentlessly calling on the French people since 2024 – using a controversial phrase – to engage in "demographic rearmament", several recent signs suggest that the government continues to treat the family as a cost, motherhood as a handicap and childbirth as a risk that must be managed.

Three official developments in particular capture the contradiction: proposed cuts to family support, a sexual-health roadmap centered on contraception and abortion and an equality report that casts motherhood primarily as an economic penalty.

The figures, however, should force a change in perspective. In 2025, some 645,000 children were born in France – 24% fewer than in 2010. For the first time since the end of World War II, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births. France is therefore no longer merely facing a decline in fertility: it is entering a new demographic reality, one whose economic and social consequences will be considerable.

Emmanuel Macron had recognized the urgency of the situation as early as January 2024, announcing a demographic rearmament, a new maternity leave program and a major plan to combat infertility. But two years later, public discourse still seems unable to adapt accordingly. Why would the French want to have children if society so often sends them the message that children represent, above all, an expense, a burden or a source of inequality?

The Family: A Budget-Balancing Tool

The first signal came from the joint report by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) and the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) on the effectiveness of family policies. Published this summer at the prime minister’s request, it identifies €4.2bn ($4.5bn) in potential savings over the next ten years, including €2.5bn ($2.7bn) in the shorter term. Among the proposed measures are a 20% reduction in the income ceilings for family allowances; a decrease in the family quotient; the elimination of certain tax benefits and a reform of the pension supplement granted to parents of three or more children.

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At this stage, these are still proposals resulting from a review of expenditures, not measures that have already been adopted. The report itself, moreover, emphasizes the need to strengthen early childhood care and to reallocate resources toward programs deemed most effective. But the political message remains troubling. In a country with a low birth rate, the family continues to be viewed primarily through the lens of public spending.

Yet a child is not merely a recipient of benefits. A child is the future employee, taxpayer, entrepreneur, caregiver, teacher or parent who will enable the previous generation to benefit from pensions, healthcare and public services. The family does not merely generate additional consumption; it produces future generations – especially within a pay-as-you-go pension system that no one in France is currently considering fundamentally reforming.

The Copernican revolution has yet to take place – one that would stop viewing spending on families as a mere transfer whose immediate cost must be measured. Family policy can be redistributive; it is also an investment in the country’s economic and social continuity.

Reducing certain expenditures may be necessary when public finances are strained. However, a coherent demographic policy should begin by factoring into its calculations the cost of not having children.

A Reproductive Policy Without a Genuine Birth Policy

The second sign is even more troubling. The new national roadmap for sexual health for 2026–2030, published on 7 September, aims in particular to strengthen and simplify access to contraception and abortion. It also plans to refer the matter to the National Consultative Ethics Committee in order to “re-examine” the legal time limits for accessing abortion and the specific conscience clause for doctors and midwives.

At this stage, therefore, this does not involve an immediate repeal of this clause or a further automatic extension of the time limits. But the proposed direction is clear enough to be cause for concern. Under the guise of defending women’s freedom, the government – by considering these changes – is refusing to adopt a family policy worthy of the name; rather, such a policy should enable women to avoid having to choose between motherhood and autonomy, between children and careers and between family and economic security.

The unease runs deep. While the government, through the president’s words, awkwardly urges the French to have more children, the institutional vocabulary remains primarily focused on pregnancy prevention, contraception, access to abortion and fertility control.

This was already one of the ambiguities in the “letter to the French people” envisioned by Emmanuel Macron to boost the birth rate. The aim was to address fertility, infertility, the age at which people have children and the preservation of reproductive capacity – but without truly managing to articulate a positive vision of the family.

Technology and medicine can push back certain biological limits, but they cannot give young French people a reason to want a family.

Motherhood Becomes a “Penalty”

The third indication comes from the High Council for Equality. In its new report From the Sticky Floor to the Mother’s Ceiling, published on 9 September, the institution presents motherhood as one of the main factors contributing to the persistence of economic inequalities between women and men. It refers to a “maternal penalty” and a “mother’s ceiling” – a career barrier linked to motherhood – and emphasizes that after giving birth, women’s career trajectories and incomes are permanently affected.

This observation clearly deserves to be taken seriously. It is legitimate to want to prevent a woman from being discriminated against because she is a mother or from having to sacrifice her career because the burden of family responsibilities falls disproportionately on her.

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But the institutional vocabulary reveals something deeper here as well. Once again, motherhood is viewed primarily through the lens of its costs: lost income, a stalled career, diminished autonomy and increased precariousness. Once again, government officials demonstrate their inability to view motherhood as a positive contribution rather than as a necessary evil whose damage must be mitigated.

Restoring a Culture of Family

France is beginning to understand that children are essential to its economic future, but it continues to speak of the family as an expense. It wants more births, but struggles to discuss motherhood in terms other than occupational risks. It wants to combat the declining birthrate, but its discourse on sexuality and reproduction remains largely centered on controlling and preventing pregnancy.

A society that wants its members to have children must be able to tell them that children are good news. A genuine demographic policy cannot, therefore, be reduced to maternity leave, tax breaks or a plan to combat infertility. It requires a culture of the family – a culture that views bringing new life into the world, raising children, caring for them and passing on knowledge, values and heritage as activities that create wealth, even when they are not immediately reflected in GDP.

France seems to have understood the demographic problem. It has not yet found the language that would allow it to solve it. If it wants children, it must rediscover why a family is a source of wealth.