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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[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 73 points 1 month ago (3 children)

They're saying the quiet part out loud and why they're anti-abortion. The younger the better for a quick turnaround:

They need the poors to fight their wars and work on their factory floors.

[–] lectricleopard@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I frequently just stand outside and look at the sky and think, yep, we weren't meant to work all day. We were meant to pick berries and mushrooms and take naps. I feel better about my station in life, knowing those oligarchs can never be satisfied, and all I have to do to feel right is take a walk outside.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] 0ops@piefed.zip 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah, that's why we can run

Edit: Distance running that is. Humans have better endurance than almost any land animal, so we can chase prey to exhaustion. It helps that we're crafty enough to carry water and snacks with us

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not an expert, but that would depend on the location, probably. Smaller game, certainly, but not everyone had large animals roaming around. Likewise, there were probably people who hunted and didn't gather that much because there simply wasn't that type of plant around.

But the point made still stands: modern life is not something natural to our evolution.

[–] lectricleopard@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Yeah, Ill sit in a deer stand all afternoon, or pick blueberries. Both are better than email.

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[–] crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 60 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I distinctly remember a time when boomers and talking heads would automatically respond to concerns about issues with the cost of having kids with:

"Don't have kids if you can't afford them."

"If you couldn't afford kids then you should've kept your legs closed."

"Don't expect a handout, nobody forced you to have kids."

"Healthcare and child care are too expensive? Tough shit snowflake, that's the free market! Work harder!"

"Why are my taxes paying for a public school when I don't even have any kids that go there?"

So nope, no sympathies. And no, you can't have your child sex brides, either.

[–] Soleos@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago

They are still saying this when it's convenient for them. The only consistent thing for such people is their cowardice in the face of responsibility.

[–] LilRed@lemmy.org 51 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Who the fuck wants to be having kids in this day and age anyway. Also why is it up to the underage teens to push out babies to keep the population up. Yeah let's put pressure on them to ruin their entire lives before they even get to live it. Love the American standards.

[–] Steve@communick.news 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 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 14 points 1 month ago (12 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.

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[–] Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Birth rates are down all over the developed world with Japan being the hardest hit

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Most of the developed world has the same societal problems that boil down to, no one has the money, time or energy to have kids.

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[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I remember when teen pregnancy was considered bad and a sign of a decaying morality across the country. Now the same right wing moralizers are saying they need those teen moms again. But this time it's about money so they are noticeably quiet about morality.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 month ago

I remember when teen pregnancy was considered bad and a sign of a decaying morality across the country.

before that it was commonplace though. I'm 61, my grandmother started having her kids at 16, she had 8, one of them my mother, the youngest of her kids. Many of her friends were similarly 15-19 having thier first kid. My mother was 19 with me, I was born when she turned 20. She had 3 kids, i have none, my sister none and my brother 2, so family dynamics have changed.

This is Australia though, you can read books of some of the early convict ships coming over and they arrived with all the 13-16yr old girls pregnant, or having had their kid on board and being married etc

You can see some of the effect in The Philippines, pregnant teen mothers are everywhere. Religious indoctrination in regards anti contraception doesn't stop teens fucking (and this in a nation with no divorce)

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Only locally it's a bad thing. Nationally, they need those girls waiting tables in diners. How else is someone going to get their nostalgia kick while driving route 66?

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[–] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 26 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Fucking lemongrab grade screeching of purity and abstinence for decades and then suddenly this

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[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How many times do conservatives have to prove that they're all pedophiles before the rest of us will learn?

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[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maybe if you just imprison fertile women and give them to rich couples to fuck and impregnate, that will solve the problem? You could call them handmaid's to distract from what they really are!

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[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In a normal country, a doctor endorsing teen pregnancy would get their licence suspended.

[–] BenjiRenji@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

This just reminds me of a US coworker of mine who just became a great grandmother. It's teen pregrancies all the way down. Mother at 16, grandmother in her 30s, great grandmother at 50.

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)
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[–] Dionysus@leminal.space 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Matt Gatez says 'I'm doing my part'

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[–] Hegar@fedia.io 22 points 1 month ago

I wonder how much breaking up the trump-epstein ring lowered the fertility rate of 15-19 year olds.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

15-19 yr olds aren’t supposed to be having kids.

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[–] drdalek@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fertility rates are an issue for capitalism not humanity

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[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 11 points 1 month ago

COSTS ARE TOO HIGH, THE FUTURE LOOKS BLEAK, AND NOBODY WHO CAN FIX THOSE THINGS SEEMS TO GIVE A SHIT.

Go ahead and spend a bunch of money on analysts, though. Ignore the root causes. We’re used to it.

[–] dipcart@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Aren't these the people who freaked out about teenage pregnancies?

[–] Rooster326@programming.dev 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They're Republicans. Of course they are concerned about teen pregnancies.

Who do you think is making them pragernet?

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

They were angry about “single mothers” for decades, but that was a racist dog whistle.

If you’re all white, it’s all right.

[–] NutWrench@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This entire administration is just pedos and perverts, isn't it?

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Always was.

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[–] Beebabe@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

And guess who the fathers to those teen pregnancies are? It’s men over 20. Adding a layer of ick to what he’s lamenting.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Brace yourselves for the pedophile parasite class campaign to justify their crimes

[–] TheDoctorDonna@piefed.ca 10 points 1 month ago

They want every woman to be a Michelle Duggar - get married as a minor, start popping them out ASAP, and keep the Xerox machine running until someone dies.

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Fixing the birthrate is pretty simple in theory. The government needs to meet the needs of people having kids. The details are a little more complicated.

In order to have more kids in their 20's people need:

A higher income in their 20's. If they work full time they deserve to be able to afford a 3 bedroom place, food, etc..

A place to live - Build affordable housing that people can own and build a life. These need to be 3-4 bedroom places that one income can cover.

Medical care: free quality medical care to cover little things like birth cost and the doctor visits a child needs.

Time: Hard to make babies when you are working 60+ hours a week. Mandatory 40 or less work week. 2 months of vacation every year.

Childcare - Free or heavily subsidized childcare for working parents. Currently childcare for 2 children is more than the net average income for one person in many areas. Earlier retirement programs are also highly effective.

Quality schools and education: ban private schools, invest heavily in public schools increasing teacher wages and requirements, reducing classroom sizes, and providing quality educational material. Free college and trade schooling as well.

Hope: Stop fucking up the planet for temporary gains. If we started to reverse our environmental damaging behaviors more people would be willing to have kids

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 6 points 1 month ago (9 children)

When standards of living rise, birthrates drop.

Western countries, japan & korea all have low birthrates and all developed them as av. income rose. China too but one-child made it a less clear example. Even within a society, middle and upper classes have smaller families than the working class.

Declining birthrates can't be fixed by improving living standards, but that's fine because low birthrate is a good thing - a sign of a society doing well.

If a high income/low birthrate society needs more citizens, immigration from low income/high birthrate areas is the only viable option. Endless expansion is a fools errand anyway.

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[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Abstinence education is working! How are they not happy at their success?

[–] randomdeadguy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago
[–] RymrgandsDaughter@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Considering the average age of father's for teen pregnancy, It can keep dropping

[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

just what the world needs, more americans

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I feel like we're in the upside down....

[–] Quilotoa@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Interestingly, Canada, which has free health care has a lower birth rate than the U.S. where births can cost between $3000 and $70 000.

[–] bountygiver@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

Getting the child born is the cheap part, getting them to grow up is the real money sink.

And Canada is not exactly the cheapest place to live either

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