French government to send letters encouraging young adults to have babies

The French government is launching an initiative to mail letters to every 29-year-old citizen, warning about how falling birth rates may harm the country.

The letter, which will be sent to hundreds of thousands of 29-year-olds, will contain “targeted, balanced and scientifically based information on sexual and reproductive health,” the Ministry of Health said. 

Officials say the goal is to prevent regret later in life. The ministry said the effort is meant to help young adults avoid the “‘if only I had known’ mentality.”

The mailing is part of a broader national plan to address infertility after a 2022 government report found more than 3 million people in France suffer from it. 

The new strategy, launched last week, includes a public awareness campaign and a stronger focus on controversial fertility services such as egg freezing, which the state already funds for women ages 29 to 37.

Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said the “challenges of infertility have been analyzed in all their aspects” to allow the “immediate launch of concrete and long-awaited measures.”

She also pushed back on claims the government is pressuring citizens to have children.

“The role of politicians is not to dictate whether or not to have children; what we must avoid is continuing to hear ‘if only I had known’,” Rist said.

Government materials tied to the campaign will stress fertility is a “shared responsibility” between men and women.

Another part of the plan would open dozens of new egg-freezing centers across France. Private companies would also be allowed to operate in that space.

Pro-life opponents of egg freezing argue because the frozen eggs can only be used through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) – a process often creating and discarding surplus unborn babies – the practice ultimately incentivizes the creation and destruction of human life at its earliest stage.

The effort comes as France hits a demographic milestone. In 2025, the country recorded 651,000 deaths and 645,000 births. It marked the first time since World War II that deaths outnumbered births. The fertility rate has now dropped to 1.56 children per woman. Countries need a rate of 2.1 to maintain population levels. 

For years, many Western leaders promoted policies that delayed marriage and childbearing, treating family life as optional or secondary. Now governments are confronting the consequences of that shift.