America’s total fertility rate has reached a new low of 1.57 children per woman, a 1% decline from 2024. According to the Wall Street Journal, some organizations warn that declining birth rates could eventually leave too few young people to enter the workforce and help sustain programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
This is a complex societal issue with potentially significant consequences. However, addressing it will not be as simple as increasing women’s fertility rates, as some pro-natalist groups suggest.
Harvard economist Claudia Goldin has found that declining birth rates often coincide with greater educational and professional opportunities for women. Her research also shows that more than one-quarter of the decline in the fertility rates since 2007 can be attributed to falling teen pregnancies rates in the United States.
At the same time, women are not necessarily choosing to avoid parenthood altogether. Many are simply prioritizing other milestones before having children, including pursuing higher education, building careers, securing financial stability, and purchasing a home. Raising a family is a major financial and personal commitment, and many women are choosing to wait.
Current fertility data also reflects only a moment in time. According to Martha Bailey, an economics professor and director of UCLA’s California Center for Population Research, women who have completed their childbearing years continue to average between 1.9 to 2 children. In other words, many women are simply delaying parenthood rather than deciding against it entirely.
Women should not be expected to address this “issue” on their own. Society as a whole, including the federal government, must be part of the solution. Yet, the U.S. has done little to create conditions that would make raising children more affordable. Policies such as paid parental leave and accessible, affordable child care remain limited at the federal level.
Instead, some proposals have focused on encouraging women to have more children. The current administration has considered ideas such as a “National Medal of Motherhood” for women with six or more children. Proposals like this place pressure on women while reinforcing traditional expectations about women’s roles in society.
As the current administration and pro-natalist groups continue to panic about women delaying motherhood, we must reject the “alarming fertility statistics.” If women choose to have children, that decision should be guided by their own goals, circumstances, and desires, not by pressures to solve a manufactured problem.
At the end of the day, supporting families means creating conditions in which people can make reproductive decisions freely. The solution to declining birth rates is not limiting women’s choices, but ensuring they have the resources and support needed to build the lives and families they want.