ABSTRACT
Motherhood has been a profoundly political question in France in the twentieth century, subject to the scrutiny of demographers and politicians fearful for the demographic future. Measures combating depopulation after the First World War included the 1920 and 1923 laws (outlawing abortion, information about contraception and the distribution of contraceptive materials) which were passed with no opposition in the conservative postwar Parliament. The right-wing discourse in the 1930s on the decadence of France saw both the low birth rate and the question of sexual liberty as fundamental explanations of the decline of the French race.
