World Economic Forum did not ban natural conception

"WEF Bans Natural Conception: All Babies Must Be Lab-Grown by 2030," says an article published June 8, 2023 by The People's Voice.

The People's Voice, previously known as NewsPunch, has a lengthy history of publishing fabricated stories, many of which AFP has debunked.

Image

Screenshot of an article published by The People's Voice taken July 18, 2023

The claim then spread across social media and video sharing platforms including as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Rumble and Bitchute.

The WEF, an international organization that lobbies politicians, businesses and cultural groups, is a frequent target of misinformation. Like many of the claims made online about the forum, this is similarly false.

"The World Economic Forum never called for an end to natural conception or pushed for babies to be lab-grown. These are false claims to discredit the important work that the World Economic Forum does on serious global challenges," WEF spokesperson Yann Zopf told AFP on July 19, 2023.

AFP searched the WEF's websites and reputable media outlets and found no evidence the organization made any such statements regarding natural conception.

While some researchers have been working toward creating artificial wombs to help premature babies, this is independent of the WEF, which has made no proposal in this area.

The People's Voice article links to a WEF blog post from 2017 (archived here) about a breakthrough in synthetic womb research. The study was conducted on lambs, not people, and the post notes: "The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum."

Additionally, the WEF is an independent, non-governmental foundation, therefore, it does not have legal jurisdiction to establish a ban on natural conception or create any laws.

AFP has previously debunked other false and misleading claims about the WEF here, here, here and here.