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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
We have a character who, while fertile, very much does not want children. But society, or the law, or [[Because Destiny Says So|destiny]], will not let her get away with that easily.
Maybe there's a problem in the [[Heir Club for Men]] and she doesn't want to be involved but, since she's married to the fella needing the heir, she can't readily escape it. Or she's in a society that's gone through a [[Apocalypse How|class-2 apocalypse]], which is urging every fertile woman to repopulate the species; but she has desires or concerns more important to her than the species.
Maybe she's been prophesied to be the mother of the [[Chosen One]] or [[The Messiah]], but she wants to [[Screw Destiny]] anyway. Or she's [[Apocalypse Maiden|prophesied to be the mother of]] [[The End of the World
Or maybe she's already pregnant with the kid she adamantly doesn't want
Whatever. She would rather not have children, but the law or the universe is doing its best to stop her, demanding she have children or else. (There must be a serious "or else" involved.) The law and the universe generally win these fights, but it still can be interesting to watch it go down.
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Contrast [[Convenient Miscarriage]], which is, of course, on the opposite end of the [[Law of Inverse Fertility]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* The Yuki-onna of ''[[Rosario
== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', nature decides when two elves are ready to have a child, and the elves aren't allowed to protest. This turns into a [[Mate or Die]] situation for several elves, most prominently Dewshine, who ''hates'' the mate that was chosen for her by destiny. But since [[Babies Make Everything Better]], she loves her child regardless.
** This trope actually gets
== Fan
* This is ubiquitous in [[Shipping]] fic. The happy couple ''will'' have kids, even if neither of them would ever want them in their canon personality and [[Mister Seahorse|even if neither of them has a womb]]. There's no such thing as contraception, and miscarriages only happen when [[Deus Angst Machina]] decrees it. And if abortion exists, we're generally treated to a tedious speech about how [[Good Girls Avoid Abortion]]
** A [[Fandom
* [[
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* In the ''[[Liaden Universe]]'' books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, everyone is required to have one temporary [[Arranged Marriage]] and produce a child to be their heir, to whom he or she is a legal single parent. They can foster the kid to be raised by someone else, but Everyone. Must. Have. One. (The Liadens nearly went extinct due to a [[Planet Eater]] species.)
* Roger and Cecilia Checkerfield from ''[[The Company Novels]]'' 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 [[Patricia
* In [[Diane Duane]]'s ''[[The Tale of Five]]'' series, [[Everyone Is Bi|the entire human race is bisexual]] and both gay and poly marriages are common, but the Goddess requires that everyone must have at least one child at some point before they marry.
* Lucia and Ben of ''Devil's Due'' would have liked to have officially started dating and having sex on their own recognizance and then decided for themselves, rather than having her be kidnapped while she's passed out due to anthrax poisoning and scientifically raped/artificially inseminated with Ben's sperm by the Cross Society.
* In Margaret Atwood's ''[[
* Subverted in Ursula Vernon's ''[[
* ''The Iron Star'' has a thief who does ''not'' want to be a housewife or a mother or any kind of family woman. A Goddess overrules her (but the [[Arranged Marriage|husband the goddess chose for her]] agrees to make life luxurious for her).
* The ''[[
** What happens if you refuse? Some extremely [[Unfortunate Implications]], there.
*** The society is portrayed as level headed and moral, as well as pragmatic so it's probably meant to be an unrealistic idea that the issue would be ''forced''. However in reality, who knows what could happen in such a situation.
* The ''[[
* Lois McMaster Bujold's ''[[Vorkosigan Saga]]'' has a particularly odd one. While there was always an element of
** Barrayar is still somewhat underpopulated even during Miles's young adulthood, and as his mother points out, traditionally the planet has had to struggle to maintain, let alone increase, its population. Plus the Vor are aristocracy, so it literally ''is'' mandatory for both men and women to have children if they want their line to continue. It's pretty much ingrained in the entire planet's society.
** True, but prior to the introduction of the uterine replicator a cultural space existed in which it was possible for a woman to acknowledge not ''wanting'' children, if only for the reason of pregnancy being dangerous to life and
*** On the other hand, the uterine replicator itself is an instrument of sexual empowerment. It's noted that the Traditionalist political party won't be able to shove the new Empress into a maternity ward; she can breed and heir and still be a dominant force in the politics of the empire. Lady Vorkosigan herself has a fierce devotion to the galactic reproductive technology itself as a delayed action social time bomb; a few decades of gender selection of offspring results in an acute shortage of eligible brides, and the girls and their families are able to pick and choose from the bachelors available. A man expecting the traditional child gestation that left Miles himself teratogenically crippled finds it night impossible to get hitched. It should also be pointed out that Cordelia Vorkosigan was born and raised on Beta Colony, where children are precious commodities requiring a license for even a single offspring; Cordelia's displays of genetic greed have less to do with Barrayar than with Beta Colony.
* 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 ''[[Bumped]]'' by Megan McCafferty, teenage girls are paid lots of money to be "surrogates" after a virus makes everyone over 18 infertile. They are not allowed to keep their baby and even take medication so they will not form any attachments to the baby. Motherhood is glorified and even schools are encouraged to have as much pregnant teens as possible.
* Princess Varencienne is married to Valraven to provide him with an heir in ''[[
* Arpazia in ''[[White
== Live Action TV ==
* On ''[[
* In [[Battlestar Galactica
== Newspaper Comics ==
* One of the reasons Anthony is so despised in the ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'' fandom is the [[Unfortunate Implications|implied subtext]] that it was he who pressured his wife Thérèse into having a child that she didn't want by agreeing to be the primary care-giver, then reneging on the agreement just as Thérèse was going through postpartum depression. We are explicitly meant to see Thérèse as an unnatural monster for not wanting children in the first place (to the point where she
== Poetry ==
* The first 17 of [[Shakespeare]]'s sonnets revolve around persuading a man that this applies to him.
{{quote|
''You had a father: let your son say so.'' }}
== Religion ==
* In [[The Bible]], mankind is ordered to "be fruitful and multiply," which has traditionally been seen as a command to have children if at all possible. The Patriarchs and Matriarchs, for example, went through a lot knowing that God's plans relied on them producing the Jewish people, as did Moses' parents in the wake of Pharaoh's decree.
** Onan was killed by God for refusing to have a child with Tamar, his dead brother's wife, as per the laws of levirate marriage. Of course, he told her he ''would'' and then performed ''coitus interruptus'' to prevent it, so he was arguably sort of an [[Asshole Victim]].
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** Terrestrials are strongly encouraged to marry and have babies regardless of sexual orientation, since theirs is the only sort of Exaltation that's hereditary.
** Inverted with the Abyssals, who suffer divine (or at least infernal) punishment if they procreate. The Neverborn created them to ''get rid of'' all those pesky living creatures, damn it, not to go around making new ones!
* A sore point for many fans of ''[[
== Theater ==
* In ''[[Twelfth Night]]'', one argument used on Olivia.
{{quote|
''If you will lead these graces to the grave
''And leave the world no copy.'' }}
* In ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'' one argument used by Benedick on himself.
{{quote|
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==
* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Women Are Delicate]]
[[Category:The Parent Trope]]
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