SSRIs, Sexual Dysfunction, and the Right-Wing Push for “Traditional Families”—A Hidden Agenda?

They want us broken. Silent. Afraid. The right’s attack on SSRIs, birth control, and reproductive healthcare is not about protecting women—it’s about controlling them. It is no coincidence that the same men pushing to ban abortion are now coming for antidepressants. A happy, independent woman is a threat to their vision of a patriarchal, submissive society—so they aim to take away the medical advances that let us escape bad marriages, resist abuse, and build lives on our own terms. They want us medication-free, child-bearing, and obedient. We cannot let them win.

The conservative scrutiny of SSRIs and other health treatments fits into a broader ideological project aimed at restoring a rigid, patriarchal social order. While the official justification often centers on “health concerns” or “public safety,” the deeper motivation is rooted in anxieties over gender roles and shifting societal norms. Right-wing politicians and thought leaders frequently argue that modern medicine has “disrupted the natural order” by enabling women to delay childbirth, choose careers over family, and become less dependent on men for financial and emotional stability. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 explicitly calls for dismantling the administrative state and reducing government involvement in healthcare, which would make access to mental health services, birth control, and reproductive care more difficult (Project 2025, 2023). By pushing back against SSRIs and other pharmaceutical interventions, conservatives create a framework for a society where traditional gender roles are not just encouraged but structurally enforced—a world where women are expected to rely on husbands, faith, and family rather than medical or government-supported resources.

This attack on modern medicine aligns with the right’s broader war on female autonomy, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ+ existence. SSRIs, like birth control and abortion, are seen as tools that allow people to escape traditional roles—whether it’s a woman choosing a career over motherhood or a queer person rejecting conservative moral frameworks in favor of personal identity. Figures like Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, and various Christian nationalist groups argue that the rise in antidepressant prescriptions is not a mental health crisis but a symptom of “cultural decline” caused by feminism and secularism (Shapiro, 2023; Walsh, 2022). By framing SSRIs as dangerous or unnecessary, conservatives set the stage for a broader rollback of medical and social freedoms, with religious and familial structures replacing scientific, evidence-based care. This explains the growing push for “wellness farms,” faith-based mental health programs, and restrictions on psychiatric medication, which effectively strip individuals—particularly women—of their ability to navigate mental health issues independently.

At its core, the conservative obsession with scrutinizing SSRIs is about engineering a return to a society where men hold the economic and social power, women are incentivized or forced into motherhood, and LGBTQ+ people are erased from public life. The regulatory attack on SSRIs and other forms of medical autonomy is not just about policy—it’s a moral crusade against modernity. The same figures pushing for SSRI restrictions are also attacking abortion access, demonizing single women, restricting gender-affirming care, and advocating for faith-based alternatives to medical science (Family Research Council, 2022). By dismantling the structures that allow people to make independent decisions about their health and bodies, conservatives hope to reshape American society into one where religious dogma and traditional family structures replace personal freedom and medical autonomy. If this movement succeeds, the consequences will be far-reaching—not just for those who take SSRIs, but for anyone who values the right to choose how they live, love, and care for themselves.

The Right’s Obsession with “Declining Birth Rates” and the “End of Traditional Families”

Far-right and theocratic movements—including those aligned with Project 2025—often present falling fertility rates as a civilizational crisis. Their primary concerns include:

• “Western Decline” – A fear that fewer “traditional” (white, Christian, nuclear) families means demographic replacement.
• The “Crisis of Masculinity” – Blaming feminism, female independence, and liberal culture for “weak men” and fewer male-led households.
• A “War on Motherhood” – Claiming that modern women have been “brainwashed” into avoiding marriage and children.
• Sexual and Gender “Deviance” – Seeing LGBTQ+ rights as a rebellion against the “natural order.”

The conservative war on modern medicine is fundamentally about controlling bodily autonomy and limiting the ability of individuals—especially women and LGBTQ+ people—to make independent decisions about their health and futures. Medical advances like SSRIs, birth control, gender-affirming care, and abortion rights have allowed people to break free from traditional societal constraints, which conservatives see as a direct threat to their vision of a patriarchal, faith-based society. As access to these treatments has expanded, more people have been able to delay childbirth, leave toxic relationships, transition genders, or simply live without conforming to rigid gender roles. Right-wing figures frame this as a moral and existential crisis, arguing that pharmaceutical interventions are weakening traditional family structures and contributing to the decline of “Western civilization.” This explains why many conservative groups, including The Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council, and various Christian nationalist organizations, are not just fighting against abortion but also actively working to limit access to psychiatric medication, gender-affirming healthcare, and contraception (Project 2025, 2023; Family Research Council, 2022).

By attacking modern medicine, conservatives seek to reimpose dependence on traditional structures like marriage, religion, and male authority figures. If access to SSRIs, gender-affirming care, and reproductive healthcare is restricted, people—especially women—will have fewer avenues to escape abusive relationships, forced pregnancies, or repressive social environments. Tucker Carlson, in a 2023 segment, claimed that “Big Pharma and feminists don’t want you to be happy, they want you weak, depressed, and reliant on their drugs instead of your family.” This rhetoric is part of a broader effort to delegitimize medical science and replace it with faith-based and family-centric solutions that encourage women to seek purpose in motherhood and men to reclaim patriarchal leadership. In this framework, depression, gender dysphoria, and reproductive health issues are not seen as medical conditions but as moral failings—problems to be solved through traditional gender roles, marriage, and religious devotion rather than medical intervention.

This ideological assault on modern medicine is already shaping policy, with conservatives pushing laws that restrict access to gender-affirming care, abortion, and even psychiatric medication. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has promoted restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare while simultaneously questioning psychiatric medications for children, arguing that “we need to stop using drugs to replace discipline and purpose” (DeSantis, 2023). Similar efforts are underway to limit access to birth control, with lawmakers in several Republican-led states proposing restrictions on contraception, citing its role in “declining birth rates.” These coordinated efforts show that the conservative war on medicine isn’t just about a single issue—it’s about restructuring society to align with a theocratic vision where medical freedom is replaced with state-enforced traditionalism. If successful, these policies will result in a world where bodily autonomy is severely restricted, and access to life-saving treatments is determined not by medical need but by adherence to conservative ideology.

How SSRIs Fit into This Strategy

SSRIs are being targeted because they affect:

• Sexuality – They lower libido, which conservatives see as fueling the “sex recession” and undermining heterosexual marriages.
• Female Independence – Women are twice as likely as men to take antidepressants—giving them the emotional stability to leave bad marriages, reject patriarchal roles, and function without male financial support.
• Mental Health Autonomy – The right opposes psychiatric interventions because they allow people to reject conservative dogma about “God and family” as the sole source of meaning.
• Birth Rates & Family Planning – SSRIs contribute to delayed childbirth and lower conception rates—an existential crisis for pronatalist conservatives.

By challenging the legitimacy of SSRIs, conservatives can steer women toward “traditional” solutions, such as:

• Marriage and religion as “natural” cures for depression.
• Motherhood as a substitute for antidepressants.
• Banning or restricting psychiatric medication to increase dependency on “family-based healing.”

The conservative attack on SSRIs is not just about mental health—it’s about controlling sexuality, female independence, and reproductive choices. Since SSRIs are proven to lower libido, many right-wing figures have linked their widespread use to the so-called “sex recession,” the declining rates of sexual activity and marriage among young adults. Tucker Carlson, in a 2022 segment, claimed that “modern medicine has made people numb—emotionally, sexually, spiritually. It’s no wonder they don’t get married or have kids.” This view reflects a broader conservative panic that heterosexual relationships and marriages are in decline because of cultural and medical factors that suppress “natural” desires. By casting SSRIs as part of a feminist and pharmaceutical conspiracy to sterilize the population, conservatives can argue for restrictions on psychiatric medication in the name of preserving marriage, boosting birth rates, and “rebuilding” traditional families (Carlson, 2022).

Beyond their impact on sexuality, SSRIs threaten conservative gender roles because they disproportionately benefit women, allowing them to function independently of men. Studies show that women are twice as likely as men to take antidepressants, a fact that conservatives interpret as proof that feminism has “tricked” women into abandoning traditional family structures and left them miserable. Right-wing commentator Matt Walsh has explicitly argued that antidepressants are being used to “numb women into accepting a lifestyle that makes them lonely and childless.” By framing female depression as a result of feminism and secularism rather than medical need, conservatives can push women away from psychiatric solutions and toward patriarchal dependency—encouraging them to see marriage, motherhood, and religion as the true cures for their unhappiness (Walsh, 2023). This logic underpins conservative efforts to replace mental health treatment with “faith-based healing”, where depression is seen not as a medical condition but as a moral and spiritual failing that must be corrected through submission to traditional values.

The attack on SSRIs is also deeply intertwined with conservative anxieties about birth rates and family planning. Since SSRIs can delay childbirth by suppressing sexual desire and emotional reliance on relationships, they are seen as a direct threat to pro-natalist policies. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has made it clear that declining birth rates are a national emergency, stating in 2019 that “our greatest challenge is demographic survival. The West is failing because its leaders refuse to support families” (Orbán, 2019). This fear is echoed by Christian nationalist groups in the U.S., which argue that birth control, abortion, and SSRIs are all tools of a feminist agenda designed to prevent women from fulfilling their “biological role” as mothers. By discrediting SSRIs and other medical interventions, conservatives can push for policies that force women into marriage and motherhood by restricting their ability to function outside of a traditional family structure. Project 2025, for instance, outlines plans to strip funding from government-backed mental health services and redirect resources toward “family-based healing” and religious counseling, effectively ensuring that mental health treatment aligns with conservative social expectations (Project 2025, 2023).

Is the Right Trying to Force Women Back into Traditional Roles?

Yes—and the attack on SSRIs, birth control, and mental healthcare is just one part of a larger conservative effort to strip women of autonomy and push them back into traditional gender roles. This campaign is directly linked to policies aimed at controlling female bodies and limiting their ability to function outside the patriarchal family unit. One of the most obvious signs of this shift is the growing conservative movement to restrict birth control, a fight that goes beyond abortion bans. Senator Josh Hawley and other right-wing politicians have openly questioned whether contraception should be federally protected, arguing that it has led to “delayed marriage and declining family formation” (Hawley, 2023). The National Conservatism movement has explicitly called for a reexamination of birth control’s role in society, with some figures arguing that access to contraception has “artificially” reduced birth rates and encouraged promiscuity (National Conservatism Conference, 2022). By cutting off access to both mental healthcare and reproductive healthcare, conservatives can create an environment where women are left with fewer choices—pushing them toward dependence on marriage and childbearing as their only viable future.

This war on female independence is also reflected in the right-wing demonization of single women, working women, and childless women. Tucker Carlson, in a 2023 monologue, stated that “feminism has left an entire generation of women miserable, overmedicated, and alone.” This idea—that women who pursue careers or reject traditional family roles are doomed to unhappiness—has become a central talking point in conservative circles. Right-wing influencers like Pearl Davis and Matt Walsh constantly push the narrative that female empowerment is a lie and that modern women are secretly desperate to return to “traditional” roles. These figures promote marriage as the ultimate solution to mental health issues, discouraging women from seeking therapy or psychiatric medication and instead encouraging them to “submit” to a husband who will provide structure and stability (Davis, 2023; Walsh, 2022). This narrative extends to single mothers, who are increasingly vilified by conservative lawmakers who frame them as a societal burden. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has suggested that single motherhood contributes to crime and economic instability, echoing a broader Republican effort to stigmatize women who choose to raise children without a husband (DeSantis, 2023).

Perhaps the most alarming piece of this agenda is the conservative push to repeal no-fault divorce, a move that would legally trap women in marriages they may no longer want. Republican lawmakers in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma have all proposed legislation to restrict or eliminate no-fault divorce, citing the need to “restore the nuclear family” (Texas GOP Platform, 2022). These efforts are directly tied to conservative attacks on feminism, which is increasingly framed as a mental illness rather than a legitimate social movement. Figures like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro argue that feminism has made women “miserable” and that depression among women is proof that female independence is unnatural. By pushing the idea that feminism is a psychological disorder that should be treated with marriage and faith rather than therapy and medication, conservatives create a justification for dismantling both mental healthcare and legal protections for women. The goal is clear: to build a society where women have no choice but to marry, have children, and submit to traditional gender roles.

Other policies aimed at controlling female bodies and choices:

1. Restricting Birth Control – Many conservatives are moving beyond abortion bans to attack contraception access.
2. Demonizing Single Motherhood & Career Women – Framing them as “selfish” or “unhappy.”
3. Opposing No-Fault Divorce – Some GOP politicians have explicitly called for repealing divorce rights to “restore the nuclear family.”
4. Promoting Marriage Incentives – Financial rewards for women who stay home and have children.
5. Framing Feminism as a Mental Illness – Suggesting that female autonomy is causing depression rather than alleviating it.

How This Ties into Christian Nationalism & Theocratic Goals

Project 2025 and similar movements explicitly call for religious and patriarchal control over society. The attacks on SSRIs fit into a larger playbook of authoritarian social engineering, where:

• Mental illness is dismissed as a spiritual problem, requiring faith-based treatment.
• Doctors and mental health professionals are undermined, while pastors and religious figures become the new “therapists.”
• People are pushed away from medical interventions and toward “God, family, and country” as their only support system.
• LGBTQ+ people are “cured” through religious counseling, rather than allowed medical autonomy.

This is a modern theocratic playbook—one that sees SSRIs and other medical advancements as threats to a conservative social order.

The Next Steps: What Comes After SSRIs?

If SSRIs are successfully demonized or restricted, conservatives will likely expand their assault on bodily autonomy by targeting other essential medical treatments. These efforts will be framed as moral or societal corrections but will ultimately serve to limit personal freedom, enforce traditional gender roles, and increase dependence on religious and patriarchal structures.

ADHD medication & neurodivergent treatment → Framing neurodivergence as a “discipline problem” to be corrected with traditional values

There is an increasing conservative backlash against ADHD diagnoses and neurodivergent accommodations, with many right-wing figures claiming that ADHD is overdiagnosed and that medication is an “excuse” for bad behavior. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has pushed against school-based ADHD interventions, arguing that children “need structure, not stimulants.” Many conservative activists have similarly positioned ADHD treatment as part of the “softening of America,” discouraging medication in favor of rigid discipline, military-style schooling, and religious instruction. This aligns with the broader right-wing war on mental healthcare, which promotes the idea that children should “toughen up” instead of seeking medical treatment. Read more about the ADHD medication culture war here.

Gender-affirming care → Further bans on puberty blockers and hormones, under the guise of protecting children

The conservative movement has already made significant progress in banning gender-affirming healthcare across multiple states, falsely equating treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy with “child abuse.” Republican-led legislatures in states like Texas, Tennessee, and Florida have passed sweeping bans on gender-affirming care, even for adults in some cases. Figures like Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro argue that all gender-affirming healthcare should be outlawed, framing it as “mutilation” rather than essential medical treatment. The next logical step in this campaign is criminalizing trans healthcare nationwide, restricting insurance coverage for gender-related treatments, and pushing for federal bans similar to those already introduced in state legislatures. Read about the growing attack on gender-affirming care here.

Birth control → A full repeal of contraceptive protections, restricting women’s reproductive freedom

With abortion bans successfully implemented in multiple states, many conservative lawmakers are now shifting their focus to contraception itself. The right has begun targeting hormonal birth control, IUDs, and emergency contraception, with some states pushing for legal personhood for fertilized eggs, which would effectively criminalize many forms of contraception. Senator Josh Hawley and right-wing think tanks like The Heritage Foundation have suggested that contraception promotes “promiscuity” and undermines the role of women as mothers. Some Republican-led states, like Missouri, have already attempted to restrict Medicaid funding for contraceptives, signaling the first steps toward broader access limitations. Read more about the attack on birth control here.

Assisted reproductive technology (like IVF) → Limiting access, forcing couples into “natural” pregnancy

The conservative push for “traditional family values” has already begun targeting in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other forms of assisted reproductive technology, arguing that they “devalue natural pregnancy”. Anti-abortion activists have expressed concerns that IVF leads to the destruction of embryos, which they equate to abortion. In Alabama, a judge ruled that frozen embryos should be legally considered “children,” setting a dangerous precedent that could be used to restrict IVF nationwide. If SSRIs and birth control are successfully restricted, IVF and surrogacy will likely be next, with conservatives promoting adoption, religious-based fertility treatments, and “God’s will” over medical intervention. Read more about the conservative push to limit IVF here.

Therapy & Psychiatry → Replacing secular mental health services with faith-based counseling

A core part of Project 2025 and the broader conservative agenda is the replacement of secular mental healthcare with faith-based counseling. The right increasingly portrays therapy, psychiatric medication, and mental health diagnoses as tools of liberal indoctrination, arguing that they steer people away from traditional family values and faith. Texas and Florida have already allocated state funding to “Christian counseling” programs that discourage therapy in favor of prayer, religious mentorship, and “biblical solutions” to mental distress. This movement extends beyond SSRIs—conservatives are working to dismantle the entire mental healthcare system and replace it with religious institutions that frame depression, anxiety, and neurodivergence as moral failings instead of medical conditions. Read more about the rise of faith-based counseling as an alternative to therapy here.

Do you see it? : The War on SSRIs Is a War on Bodily Autonomy

What we’re seeing is not just a medical debate—it’s a strategic move in the right’s larger plan to reassert control over women, sexuality, and independence.

This is about:

• Forcing people back into heterosexual, nuclear families.
• Pushing women away from careers and independence.
• Destroying LGBTQ+ autonomy.
• Eliminating “secular solutions” to mental health.
• Replacing medical science with religious doctrine.

If the Project 2025 agenda moves forward, expect to see SSRIs, birth control, and other medical freedoms increasingly restricted under the banner of “saving the family.”

TL;DR: The Attack on SSRIs is Part of a Larger Conservative Plan to Reinforce Patriarchy and Christian Nationalism

SSRIs make people independent. The right sees that as a problem.
By pushing restrictions on antidepressants, they aim to:
✔ Force women back into traditional marriages
✔ End female financial & emotional independence
✔ Demonize LGBTQ+ identity & self-determination
✔ Replace medical science with religious control

This isn’t about “health.” It’s about control.