‘Babies Are Good. More Babies Are Better’: Pro-Natalism Takes Center Stage in Austin

On Dec. 1, 2023, the Natal Conference will be held in Austin, Texas. Promising to gather the “brightest minds in the world,” the conference is aimed at turning around the world’s “shrinking population,” which represents “the greatest population bust in human history.” Pro-natalists typically focus their concern on falling birth rates in the United States and most of Europe, as critics commonly point out, which they believe will lead to the collapse of civilization. The urgent goal of the pro-natalist movement (of which the Natal Conference is a part) is the reversal of a decline in population through promoting human reproduction.

The conference “has no political or ideological goal other than a world in which our children can have grandchildren,” according to its website—but as Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project on Hate and Extremism, warned, the meeting will solidify links between the far right and right-wing influencers. Fiercely anti-feminist speakers will join them.

“It’s not surprising to see far-right folks, eugenicist types and white nationalists joining forces at a conference like this,” Beirich told the Guardian. “They have become bedfellows.’”

These...