The "Denatality Complex": The Demographic Argument in the Birth Control Debate in France, 1956-1967

Virginie de Luca Barrusse (1, 2)

1 IDUP - Institut de Démographie
2 CRIDUP - Centre de recherches de l'Institut de Démographie de l'Université Paris 1

The fiftieth anniversary in 2017 of the Neuwirth Act authorizing the use of the contraceptive pill in France provides an opportunity to revisit the arguments that fuelled the debate on the use of contraceptive methods and the right to planned parenthood. They cannot be expressed simply in terms of an opposition between conservatives and feminists on women's rights to control their bodies and their sexuality. The issues are more complex, and in this article, Virginie De Luca Barrusse shows that the arguments also focused on the collective interest, as expressed in the need to maintain fertility and ensure population growth. Analysing written press archives, the author explores the ways in which the "demographic argument" was used by the various participants in the debate-family planning campaigners, politicians and demographers-during the period preceding the historic vote in 1967.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Virginie de Luca Barrusse. The "Denatality Complex": The Demographic Argument in the Birth Control Debate in France, 1956-1967. Population (English edition), 2018. ⟨hal-04018914⟩