Sisi calls for childbirth to be ‘regulated’

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has called for measures to “regulate” the birth rate in the country. There is no absolute right to have children, he claimed.

Sisi made his remarks on Tuesday during the first Global Congress on Population, Health and Development, which is being hosted in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital from 5-8 September. He was responding to Egypt’s Minister of Health and Population, Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, who said that it is a “matter of freedom” so the state cannot impose a limit on how many children a family can have.

“I do not agree with your idea that having children is a matter of complete freedom,” said the president. There is a possibility, he added, that people do not know the extent of the challenge facing the state to meet society’s growing demands with a growing population.

“In the end, it is the whole of society and the Egyptian state which will pay the price during the worst economic crisis in the country’s history,” noted Sisi. “We must regulate this freedom otherwise it will create a catastrophe.” He called for measures to slow the birth rate in Egypt which recorded nearly 2.2 million births in 2022. Citing China’s one-child policy as an example, Sisi suggested that Egypt needs “400,000” births per year. 

“The Chinese made this decision in 1968,” he pointed out. “Only in 2015 did Beijing officially abandon its one-child policy, allowing all married couples to have a second child. China has succeeded in its policy to control population growth.”

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