Secondly, regardless of the cause of the lowered birth rate, do you agree that freedom for women is a fundamental and inalienable right, and that the problem is how society should advance so that birth rates and family formation go back up without rolling back freedon?
It isn't pointed out because removing freedom is not an option. We have evolved beyond such primitive ways.
Now look where the US (and parts of Europe) are heading towards, with bans on contraception being openly discussed (e.g. with the recent Supreme Court decision that hinted at a reversal of the Griswold case), or access to abortion being made difficult more and more (e.g. Germany, where you have a limited-ish right to abortion, but good luck finding a practice in rural areas such as Lower Bavaria)... it's straight back to female slavery.
If societies want children, they could and should encourage people to have them. Not leave them with no choice. And for what it's worth my s/o and I would like to have children, but rents and general expenses have been insane before covid hit, and now with the Russian war it's gone even worse.
So why does Japan have such a low birth rate if women have less freedom than other western countries?