The population in the Hesselland Worldhouse on Rosmerta is nearing its limit (many would argue that it is already too great for comfort); accordingly, the Rosmertine State has instituted strict population controls. Some aspects of the controls are contentious off-planet and have resulted in friction with the Allied Worlds; there are active sophont-rights cases working their way through the interstellar judiciary.

Having a baby without a birth permit issued by the Reproductive Authority is illegal on Rosmerta. The penalty for a first offense is a substantial fine, which can be reduced by accepting long-term hormonal birth control. Second offences are punished with surgical sterilization, though the execution of all such sentences in the last several years has been stayed by the Allied World's court system, pending the outcome of a legal case arguing that these punishments are cruel and therefore in violation of the Allied Worlds Charter of Rights (Leego v Reproductive Authority of Rosmerta, as of 2505 pending before the Interstellar Superior Court of Appeals for New Europa.) Additional legal disputes exist over freedom of conscience in relation to the RA and the fairness of its particular policies. In any case, there is no legal penalty to the child, though social opprobrium against unpermitted birth in the Worldhouse is very substantial, and, unfortunately, sometimes extends to the resulting children.

The Reproductive Authority is explicitly barred (by the act of the Rosmertine Parliament that established it) from conducting any eugenics, except that it may require genetic counselling for the prevention of "major hereditary disease." In practice, it always requires such genetic counselling, on the theory that anyone could have de novo mutations that would lead to a serious genetic disease.

The Reproductive Authority issues birth permits to women¹ who successfully petition it. Though the permit is issued to a woman, who will need it for a legal birth, it is also for reproduction with a specified person (or short list of persons), either through natural means or with artificial gametes.

A permit can, in general, be obtained by any woman who has not had a child before, provided that she can demonstrate the economic capacity to raise and house a child, either alone or in willing collaboration with the permitted partners. A second permit requires review by a ward-level Community RA Panel, and will be issued under similar conditions, though in practice applied more stringently, and generally only after a few years of child-rearing experience.

Third and additional permits are rarely issued; exceptions require review by the Community RA panel and, besides demonstrating the capacity to care for the child, there must be some justification. In practice, third permits are contentious matters fraught with local politics, as flimsy justifications are sometimes accepted for the well-connected. Justifications accepted by panels include, for example: the death of a previous child in an accident that could not reasonably have been avoided; the desire to propagate a supposedly hereditary proficiency in punchball; the discovery of a co-wife's sterility in a group marriage after having two children by the same of two co-husbands; the children of a first marriage leaving Rosmerta with a divorced partner; and as part of a deal cut with the ward government to build a new habitation module with private money.