See de Beauvoir’s comment on childbearing: “There is no way to directly oblige a woman to give birth: all that can be done is to enclose her in situations where motherhood is her only option: laws or customs impose marriage on her, anticonception measures and abortion are banned, divorce is forbidden.” The Second Sex, 67. Though de Beauvoir would presumably allow that a woman may choose to conceive even in a feminist utopia, the language she uses about childbearing is typically so negative that it is hard not to regard her as resenting the fact that women can produce children and men cannot.
