A fertility crisis faces the United States as statistics show the number of children being born is lower than it has ever been. It’s led to a movement encouraging young adults to be fruitful and multiply.
Young women are having, on average, 1.5 children, which is not enough for the U.S. population to replace itself. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., warned that this means dire consequences unless the average grows to the accepted replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman.
“It’s a threat not only to our economy, to our national security,” he said, “It’s a direct threat to our Social Security trust fund, to the Medicare trust fund.”
In an effort to Make American Families again, the Trump administration has launched Moms.gov. At a White House ceremony touting the new website, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said it contains information that might help young people decide to have children, or if they already have a family, to grow it.
“Let me speak a little bit about the reality that one in three Americans are under-babied,” he said. “What does under-babied mean? That means that you either don’t have any children or you have less children than you would normally want to have.”
Research shows the top reasons for not having children, including choosing to focus on other priorities, such as career, concerns about the state of the world, or being unable to afford raising a child.
President Trump said his administration is trying to address some of those concerns.
“We’ve done more for young parents than any administration ever in history, and we’re going to continue to do so,” he said.
In addition to noting a $1,000 government contribution to new babies for an investment account called Trump Accounts, the website features deeply discounted medications used for in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, as part of Trump Rx.
Critics, however, say the administration’s efforts to encourage young people to procreate are outweighed by the cost of child care and housing.
With more than a million women choosing to abort their babies each year, Moms.gov directs users to pregnancy centers that offer counseling, free supplies, and more.
In addition to the government push, a number of faith-based groups are also encouraging couples to start or grow their family, including the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, whose Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Christina Francis, told CBN News they’re trying to change the narrative.
“This narrative about pregnancy that’s very negative and discouraging for women has developed,” she said, “especially since the Dobbs Supreme Court decision, and I legitimately think there are women out there who think that they will die if they get pregnant or that there’s no way that they can achieve their goals and their dreams if they have children.”
Dr. Francis said women who have children live longer, have higher rates of happiness, lower rates of depression and anxiety, lower risks of cancer, stroke and heart attack, and expanded brain function.
“It’s establishing new neurological connections within her brain that not only will allow her to take better care of her child, but also will allow her to be able to multitask better than she ever could before she was pregnant,” she said.
AAPLOG is joining with the EveryLife diaper company in sponsoring a new campaign called ReThink Pregnancy, which strives to encourage young couples to choose to have children early and often.
“We believe that everyone should find God, get married, and have children to be fruitful and multiply because that’s how we see our society thrive,” EveryLife President Sarah Gabel Seifert told CBN News. “That’s how we start to see health come back to a nation that so desperately needs it.”
Seifert said more women would have children if they understood the joy and purpose motherhood provides, recounting her personal experience.
“To hold that child when she came out, there’s no feeling like it,” she said. “I want everyone to be able to experience that kind of love that surpasses any sort of goal to achieve your own ambitions or career moves.”
Seifert created EveryLife to stand out as a pro-life diaper company.
“I discovered when I was pregnant with my first baby that every major diaper company on the market today was supporting abortion either vocally or financially,” she said. “I wanted to create a product that stood for every single miraculous life.”
EveryLife has donated over 10 million diapers to pregnancy resource centers. The company also sells other baby products such as wipes and gifts, as well as feminine products for women.
