State biopolitical measures in the face of declining birth rates and their implications for women’s rights and autonomy. Comparative analysis between the US and El Salvador (2023-2025)

Abstract

The present study analyzes the biopolitical measures of states in the face of the decline of global birth rate, and their effects on women’s rights and autonomy based on a comparative analysis between the United States and El Salvador, in the period 2023 - 2025. The objective of the research is to analyze and examine the impact of conservative nationalist discourses and their relationship with the states in the face of the implementation of pronatalistic policies with which they seek to configure restrictive biopolitical regimes to regulate female reproduction. In contemporary contexts, analyzing and reflecting on the relationship and future scenarios between state control, reproduction and human rights. 

This research combines a documentary analysis of public policies, political speeches and international reports of The Lancet and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) around female reproduction, which have been supported by a focus group made up of Salvadoran women, complementing the case of the United States with a citizen of that country, where these findings show that reproductive decisions in both cases are strongly linked by socioeconomic factors, a "paradox of restrictive reproductive biopolitics" is also identified, in which state and normative control over bodies does not result in an increase in birth.