“Humanity is dying,” billionaire Elon Musk told Fox News anchor Bret Baier recently when asked what keeps him up at night. “The birth rate is very low in almost every country. And so unless that changes, civilization will disappear.” Through interviews, social media posts, funding for population research and his own example as the parent of at least 14 children, Musk has become one of the most visible beacons of anxiety about falling birth rates.
While discussions about the economic challenges of falling birth rates exist across the political spectrum, the right has increasingly taken up the cause under the banner of “pronatalism” to promote higher birth rates. The Trump White House is reportedly soliciting suggestions to boost births from married couples, even as it continues drastic reductions to social services and public health funding.
In recent years, a revitalized pronatalist movement has brought together parts of the religious right, tech types and dedicated “new right” anti-feminists. These camps have some disagreements over government policy, technologies like in vitro fertilization, genetic engineering and the rehabilitation of eugenics. But most are united in the belief that modern culture has failed to adequately prioritize the value of nuclear families and making lots of babies.
Last month in Austin, Texas, many proponents of pronatalism met up at the second Natal Conference, known informally as Natal Con, where the mood was exuberant. Many there see this moment as a chance to advance their agenda through perceived allies in the Trump administration, including Musk and Vice President Vance.
The “techno-puritans”
Outside the Trump administration, Simone Collins has purposefully made herself into one of the more visible faces of pronatalism.
“My whole entire, like, Etsy getup right now — it’s intentionally cringe,” Collins told NPR between other press interviews at Natal Con. She describes her signature look as “techno-puritan.”
“There should obviously be more cybernetics in my outfit. But we are combining, like, chunky hipster glasses and a lot of modern equipment with a bonnet and linen clothing and weird puritan stuff,” said Collins, who had her 1-year-old daughter, Industry Americus Collins, strapped to her back.
Collins and her husband, Malcolm Collins, have courted press coverage by being “intentionally cringe.” It has worked: Over the last few years, they’ve been profiled by many news outlets, including The Telegraph, The Washington Post and The Guardian. The couple tells journalists they’ve curated their family’s image based on data. They chose their kids’ names (Industry Americus, Titan Invictus, Octavian George, Torsten Savage) in hopes of launching them toward impressive careers. Simone, rather than Malcolm, ran (unsuccessfully) for state office in Pennsylvania because they felt a woman would be more electable.
Techno-puritan isn’t just a fashion choice for the Collinses. It’s a religion they’ve invented in part to maximize fertility, mental health and social good. Malcolm once slapped their 2-year-old son in front of a reporter, likening it to the behavior of tigers in the wild.
“We constantly court controversy in order to get our message out because we know that’s what gets clicks,” Simone told NPR.
“The number one goal we have is to make everyone universally aware of demographic collapse as a catastrophic issue,” she said. “Our big focus is primarily on just signaling that this is a culture that values family and kids and, secondarily, taking a regulatory foot off the neck of parents.”
The Collinses are seen by fellow pronatalists as members of the movement’s “tech” camp. The couple uses and advocates for in vitro fertilization and claims the embryos of their four children were screened for illnesses, mental health issues and potential intelligence. At a penthouse cocktail party in Austin the night before Natal Con began, the Collinses invited journalists to mingle with founders of gene editing and genetic engineering companies.
The couple’s network also includes right-wing tech elites and Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Simone worked for PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and Malcolm’s brother works for Musk’s ad hoc Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team.
“Generally, women should not have careers”
Another pronatalist camp includes the more religiously motivated and believers in strict gender norms. In the movement, they’re referred to as the “trads,” as in “traditional.”
The first Natal Con, in 2023, included a presentation by far-right businessman Charles Haywood on the importance of men-only spaces. Haywood, who founded a shampoo company and aspires to be a self-described “warlord,” told the audience that workplaces should revert to privileging men with families and being segregated by sex. “And generally, women should not have careers. They should be socially stigmatized if they have careers,” Haywood said at Natal Con that year. He sponsored this year’s conference but didn’t speak.
He blames birth rate declines on feminism and democratic changes overturning what he sees as natural hierarchies of gender and race.
“The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its progeny are probably the single most destructive set of laws in American history, and all should be wiped forever from the history of this nation,” Haywood said in 2023, drawing applause from the Natal Con crowd.
