this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45445434

Fox News Senior Medical Analyst Marc Siegel made some eyebrow-raising comments lamenting that birth rates are down among teenagers aged 15 to 19.

On Thursday, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that the U.S. fertility rate fell to another record low. The agency reported that the number of births per 1,000 women of childbearing age declined from 53.8 in 2024 to 53.1 last year. The latest figure represents a continuation of a decades-long decline in fertility rates.

Siegel joined Friday’s edition of America’s Newsroom, where Dana Perino said that while the continuing trend is not surprising, “the numbers might feel a little shocking.”

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[–] Steve@communick.news 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (16 children)

The dude was conflating a number of things.
Teen birth rate is down the most, at 7% in 2025. 70% since 2005. Overall births are down slightly last year.
Overall we have a sub replacement birth rate of 1.53 per woman.

The last one is a societal problem. But just saying we need women to have more kids isn't a solution. You need to find out why people don't want to have as many kids. Which I would bet is almost entirely economic. Kids are a large long term expense. And if you're living paycheck to paycheck, with an uncertain financial future, a kid is a scary prospect.

[–] Feyd@programming.dev 19 points 1 day ago (11 children)

The problem is the sub replacement birth rate of 1.53 per woman.

This is not actually a problem, except we want to keep the completely unsustainable economic system unchanged.

[–] Steve@communick.news -4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Economy or not, having one person who needs to take care of two elderly parents, themselves, and 0.75 kids isn't great. That's not the goal

[–] Feyd@programming.dev 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Society doesn't have to work that way.

[–] Steve@communick.news 4 points 1 day ago

Of course not. That's the point. We don't want it to work that way

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