The pressure to make babies | The Population Bust

Hungary's Orban government-led pro-natal incentives and South Korea's emerging corporate-driven strategies reveal how states and companies are increasingly intervening to influence personal decisions about having children.

In Hungary, an ambitious raft of pro-natal policies have been introduced to counter declining birth rates. Tax exemptions for large families and state-backed, interest-free loans tied to childbearing illustrate the government's push to reshape demographics, but some say the policies only favour a certain segment of society and coerce people into 'traditional' large-family models. The government's pro-natal stance has also led to the introduction of the controversial 'Heartbeat Law', which forces women to listen to the heartbeat of their unborn child before terminating their pregnancies.

In South Korea, an even more acute fertility crisis has led to fear of an economic slowdown and prompted the government to encourage major corporations to step in. Companies are now offering IVF funding, expanded childcare, enhanced parental leave and, in some cases, linking promotions to the number of children employees have. There is, however, a section of Korean society that is passionately against such policies, arguing that women are being pressured into having children.

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