History Main / MandatoryMotherhood

* ''Series/TheManInTheHighCastle'': When Juliana defects to the Greater Nazi Reich in Season 2, she is told by a doctor specialized in [[EvilutionaryBiologist "racial science"]] who's performing a routine examination (among other things, measuring her skull and skin tone) that she has an injury which may render her infertile and being able to bear children is a requirement for female immigrants.

-->--'''[[Creator/{{Confucius}} Neo-Confucian]] [[http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/TWR-04.html proverb]]'''

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* FanFic/TheIkaris has an implied example. Due to three billion people dying in Second Impact, numerous countries implemented laws to loosen marriage conditions and discourage divorce to encourage family development and birthrates. Japan apparently never bothered to repeal them, due to being too busy trusting shadowy agencies to build giant robots to fight off alien monsters. Asuka angrily dubs Japan "the Las Vegas of Asia".

* The ''Fanfic/TryptichContinuum'' side-story "Anchor Foal: A Romantic CringeComedy" plays with this. Because Fluttershy was essential to reforming [[MadGod Discord]] [[FluffyTamer through her ability to sincerely befriend him]], Celestia is naturally afraid that when Fluttershy dies, Discord will go back to his old ways, seeing as how he doesn't look like making any new friends of his own. So, she decides that for the good of Equestria, Fluttershy ''must'' have at least one foal, who will hopefully serve as an "anchor" to further tether Discord into staying reformed. The thing is, Fluttershy would probably ''like'' to have foals, it's just that she's too [[ShrinkingViolet terminally shy]] to have a hope of getting them. So, Celestia enlists Fleur de Lis to go to Ponyville and, essentially, teach Fluttershy to pick up stallions.

** And then Paul, writing in the New Testament, subverted the blazes out of it by saying[[note]]I Cor. 7, mostly the second half[[/note]] it was fine for men ''and'' women not to marry, or marry, as they chose (though if "not", they were to abstain from sex). This because he expected the world to end within the next few decades ("time is short"), making populating the earth pointless. (It could also have had something to do with him being famously uninterested in marrying for some reason.)
** While the above was aimed at the Christian population in general, Paul plays it straight later on in his writings to Timothy. He says[[note]]1 Timothy 3:5[[/note]] that a man is not fit to run a church unless (among other traits) he first has experience running a family. The contradiction is probably due to the fact that the epistle in question was written by someone else in the following century and attributed to Paul.
** Some sects of the Abrahamic religions view it as their moral duty to have as many children as possible to [[WeHaveReserves provide endless soldiers for God.]]

* Camilla in ''{{Darkover}} Landfall'': After being stuck on a LostColony, she gets pregnant thanks to AppliedPhlebotinum and can't talk the doctor into giving her an abortion. She goes on to have a brood of children, and she doesn't seem to be happy about it. [[HeirClubForMen This ends up being a policy for all Darkovan women (particularly the Comyn)]]. Later, Rohana Ardais also admits that she never wanted children, but had to have them. Later, a reaction to this trope occurs in the form of the Sisterhood of the Sword, and its successor, the Order of the Renunciates; the vows of the latter order include "to bear children only in my own time and season," and not play the HeirClubForMen game. Of course as Rohanna Ardais also points out, freedom to choose is no guarantee against making the wrong choice.

* Camilla in ''{{Darkover}} Landfall'': After being stuck on a LostColony, she gets pregnant thanks to AppliedPhlebotinum and can't talk the doctor into giving her an abortion. She goes on to have a brood of children, and she doesn't seem to be happy about it. [[HeirClubForMen This ends up being a policy for all Darkovan women (particularly the Comyn)]]. Later, Rohana Ardais also admits that she never wanted children, but had to have them. Later, a reaction to this trope occurs in the form of the Sisterhood of the Sword, and its successor, the Order of the Renunciates; the vows of the latter order include "to bear children only in my own time and season," and not play the HeirClubForMen game.

* In AndreNorton's ''Literature/DreadCompanion'', at the end, Kilda is told bluntly at the end that an unattached woman in a small colony with five unattached men is unsettling; she must make her choice and settle down to a life of husband and children.

* Roger and Cecilia Checkerfield from ''TheCompanyNovels'' didn't want kids, and Roger got a vasectomy. Too bad that Roger was employed by Dr. Zeus, who forced him to adopt one of their scientific projects as his own son.

* In Margaret Atwood's ''TheHandmaidsTale'', the Republic of Gilead has an entire caste of women (the Handmaids) whose sole function is to breed. Abortion and birth control for any woman are outlawed and punishable by the death penalty. Part of the logic for this is that there seems to be some sort of SterilityPlague (possibly related to widespread environmental degradation). In the afterword, the SterilityPlague is theorized to be mumps.

* Alluded to in Terry Pratchett's ''{{Nation}}''. It's not clear exactly how old Daphne is, but her own culture certainly considers her a child; the people of the Nation, however, have pretty much a response of 'what do you mean you've not had a kid yet?'

** In the ''BookOfGenesis'', Sarah gives her maidservant Hagar to sleep with Abraham and bear children on her behalf. That seems like a somewhat strange thing to do from the viewpoint of modern audiences, but she did it because she'd been infertile for many years and was approaching (or possibly going through) menopause. The Code of Hammurabi stated that if a wife could not bear children, she was to get one of her slaves to do it for her, as the primary purpose of marriage back then wasn't so much love and companionship as producing a legitimate heir, strengthening sociopolitical alliances, economic reasons, etc. She was just doing her duty under that code.

* ''{{Exalted}}'':

* Kris in the ''Freedom'' series by Creator/AnneMcCaffrey. Another LostColony situation in which everyone has to breed. But Kris is involved in an InterspeciesRomance and is apathetic on having kids (and definitely against cheating), even if her alien boyfriend doesn't mind. She then gets injured and winds up drinking to dull the pain to the point of ''blacking out'' and having sex with other humans. Twice.

* Kris in the ''Freedom'' series by AnneMcCaffrey. Another LostColony situation in which everyone has to breed. But Kris is involved in an InterspeciesRomance and is apathetic on having kids (and definitely against cheating), even if her alien boyfriend doesn't mind. She then gets injured and winds up drinking to dull the pain to the point of ''blacking out'' and having sex with other humans. Twice.

-->--'''[[{{Confucius}} Neo-Confucian]] [[http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/TWR-04.html proverb]]'''

** And then Paul, writing in the New Testament, subverted the blazes out of it by saying it was fine for men ''and'' women not to marry, or marry, as they chose (though if "not", they were to abstain from sex). [[note]](I Cor. 7, mostly the second half.)[[/note]]
** While the above was aimed at the Christian population in general, Paul plays it straight later on in his writings to Timothy. He says that a man is not fit to run a church unless (among other traits) he first has experience running a family. [[note]]1 Timothy 3:5[[/note]]
** Some sects of the Abraihamic religions view it as their moral duty to have as many children as possible to [[WeHaveReserves provide endless soldiers for God.]]

* In ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'', nature decides when two elves are ready to have a child, and the elves aren't allowed to protest. This turns into a [[WordOfGod mate or get]] ''[[WordOfGod really]]'' sick situation for several elves, most prominently Dewshine, who ''hates'' the mate that was chosen for her by destiny. But since BabiesMakeEverythingBetter, she loves her ''child'' regardless. This trope gets twisted later -- nature seems to consider genetics ''and'' population when deciding which two elves are to reproduce. The Gliders, for example, have an ''inversion'' forced upon them: none of them had been able to conceive [[spoiler:aside from Winnowill via magic]] in centuries, despite very much wanting to have children among them, due to locking themselves in a mountain fortress with limited space. The Go-Backs, on the other hand, have an amazingly short lifespan because of their warring with trolls and living in harsh conditions and breed like any other mammals; when the Wolfriders mention Recognition, Kahvi is surprised that they still bother with that. As with [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality most things, the Wolfriders have the ideal balance]], as they reproduce often enough to maintain a cycle of life and death, but still have Recognition and only breed genetically superior children. Except for Pike, who was his father's first attempt at Healer-induced conception ''outside'' of Recognition.

* ''TheBlacklist'' has a particularly twisted and horrifying example- [[spoiler: all of the children offered by the Cyprus Adoption Agency- which specialises in offering genetically "ideal" infants to wealthy clients- are actually bred by dozens of abducted women (who fit various genetic profiles), held captive and unconscious at a fertility clinic while impregnated via artificial insemination; they are kept drugged throughout the entire pregnancy, through childbirth and beyond until it comes round to their turn again. The head of the adoption agency is the father of every single child, who wants to leave a "legacy", though the other members do it for profit (and possibly fear). In this case its not that they don't want the child- at least one does (who wakes up by accident, escapes, and is murdered), its that they don't even know they are mothers in the first place.]]

Also, despite the name, this trope is [[MisterSeahorse not limited to female characters]].

* In the series ''Series/DeadlyWomen'', the episode "Deadly Women Who Kill Their Own" shows a woman who killed all TEN of her children because she truly did not want children, but her priest said having her tubes tied would be a mortal sin. She was only caught, at age 70, when she confessed to the killings.