The Patriot Post® · America's Historically Low Birthrate Is a Problem

In a day when so much instability exists and a constant state of upheaval seems to be the norm, one thing remains consistent: hitting new lows.

In the vein of troublesome statistics demonstrating just how dire almost every aspect of American life has become, several recent articles have sounded the alarm on our country’s unprecedented record of low fertility rates. National Review paints a startling picture: “The total fertility rate recorded by the CDC is the lowest since the U.S. government began tracking it nearly a century ago. … There were 3,591,328 total births in the U.S. last year, the fewest babies born in the U.S. for any year on record since 1979.”

By age group, the drop in numbers has been led primarily by women ages 15-39 (which, as a side note, flies directly in the face of the false Democrat narrative that the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the subsequent increased restrictions on abortions would lead to more “forced births” in this same demographic of women, so there’s that). Meanwhile, for women ages 40-49, the rate of having children has remained unchanged.

The question is, what’s behind this significant drop in young adults pursuing the family life that used to be a leading priority in American society?

“People are making rather reasoned decisions about whether or not to have a child at all,” says Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina. “More often than not, I think what they’re deciding is ‘Yes, I’d like to have children, but not yet.’”

No one would argue that an unstable economy, fewer job opportunities (at least to those who were led to take on thousands of dollars in debt for a degree in gender studies or lesbian poetry that Joe Biden hasn’t yet paid off), and the increased cost of living are all factors that might influence the upcoming generations to wait to start their own families.

It is also understandable to postpone the challenge of putting food on the table and a roof over the heads of a spouse and children until you can establish a steady income and set up a path cleared of as many potential roadblocks as possible.

However, what Guzzo refers to as “reasoned decisions,” others (like me, for example) might call “selfishness,” fueled by a slew of ideologies — from feminism to toxic masculinity to self-love to focusing inward first.

It is also likely that anyone who welcomes these concepts at face value accepts them as movements of liberation and empowerment, drawing enthusiasm from their direct opposition to conservative ideas, as many of our young people have been indoctrinated to be afraid of traditional values.

However, as with pretty much everything pushed by today’s radical leftist politicians and media personalities, this might be another intentional nail in the coffin of pro-American values — an effort to replace freedom-loving Americans with immigrants less willing to impart our Founding Principles into their offspring, as these had never been part of their own upbringing. Though pure speculation, it is a thought that can’t be ignored. Democrats push for importing people from around the world because we’re not making enough of our own.

Whatever the reasons behind the choice that younger Americans are making to either postpone family life or forgo it altogether, a warning from X CEO Elon Musk should force all of us to consider what’s at stake: “Any nation with a birth rate below replacement will eventually cease to exist.”

China’s experience with this problem serves as a real-time forewarning of the consequences of turning entire generations away from procreating. The Heritage Foundation describes how, based on fear of overpopulation, the Chinese Communist Party imposed its infamous “one-child policy” in the 1980s. After seeing the disastrous impact of the lack of population growth, the CCP eventually lifted the restrictions and encouraged families to have more children. Naively, the CCP believed that this step alone would naturally result in a baby boom.

As it turns out, a change in laws did not erase the influence that growing up in a society that values neither families nor parental rights would have on the ones they were now expecting to start reproducing. Even offering financial incentives to parents and removing penalties on couples or individuals for having children out of wedlock has not been enough to change the small-family or no-family mindset that had been ingrained for so long.

The future is not hopeless, however. We can turn the fertility train around.

Our Emmy Griffin recently cited a Gallup poll that showed a desire by those interested in having children to have more of them. As almost 50% of those surveyed indicated that having three or more children is the “ideal” family size, perhaps there is at least a chance to slow down the decrease in population and give others a chance to see that the family train is the best one to be on.