Fewer children were born in the U.S. last year and teen birth rates hit an all-time low despite predictions that new abortion restrictions might cause a surge, preliminary federal data shows.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that 3,661,220 babies were born nationwide in 2022, according to an analysis of 99% of all birth certificates issued last year. That is less than a 1% decrease of about 3,000 from the 3,664,292 babies born in 2021.
In 2021, the fertility rate increased for the first time since 2014 after plunging by 4% in 2020 during the first year of COVID-19 restrictions, as the CDC found a growth in pregnancies that couples delayed early in the pandemic. The annual birth numbers for 2020, 2021 and 2022 remain lower than the 3,747,540 children born in 2019 before the pandemic began.
“The provisional total fertility rate for the United States in 2022 was 1,665.0 births per 1,000 women, essentially unchanged from the rate in 2021 (1,664.0). The total fertility rate declined by an average of 2% per year from 2014 through 2020, then rose 1% from 2020 to 2021,” three CDC researchers wrote in the report.
The report did not explain why birth rates declined last year after rebounding in 2021. But it noted that while births to moms 35 and older last year rose to their highest rates since the 1960s, they were offset by record-low birth rates among moms in their teens and early 20s.
Provisional birth rates for teenagers ages 15–17 and 18–19 fell by 2% and 4%, respectively, to historic lows of 5.5 and 25.6 births per 1,000 women from 2021 to 2022.
According to some health experts, rising living costs and the increased tendency of teens to isolate themselves amid social media in recent years have contributed to these declines.
“Birth rates often drop during economic recessions. The lockdowns have isolated teens from each other, but teen global fertility rates were plummeting before the COVID pandemic because teens have dropped face-to-face interactions for the loneliness and isolation of the digital revolution,” Katy Talento, a former top health adviser at the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Donald Trump, told The Washington Times.
Research has long shown that birth rates are traditionally highest in low-income communities and among some ethnic groups.
According to the CDC, births to Hispanic moms rose 6% last year and exceeded 25% of the U.S. total. Births to White moms fell 3% to account for 50% of births, while births to Black moms fell 1% to 14% of the total.
The U.S. requires a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman for each generation to have enough children to replace itself. The rate has been consistently below that number since 2007. The CDC said the fertility rate dropped to 1.6 in 2020 — the lowest on record — before rising to 1.7 in 2021 and staying there last year.
The CDC will release final 2022 birth numbers later this year, providing a more detailed breakdown of individual states, races and ethnicities.
Some pro-choice activists have predicted that the Supreme Court decision last June to overturn Roe v. Wade and return jurisdiction over abortion to the states will spark a surge in unintended pregnancies as more data emerges. That could add to the overall birth numbers in the roughly half of all states that have moved to tighten abortion restrictions since the ruling, they say.
But the CDC data released Thursday showed no such impact — and some leading scholars say it’s unlikely more young people will have children because of abortion restrictions.
In Texas, where a 2021 ban on most abortions went into effect ahead of the Supreme Court ruling, the CDC report found slight decreases in all types of births last year.
“There will be some impact in lower-income communities where people have fewer resources and have long had higher birth rates,” said Mary Ziegler, a leading expert on the legal history of the abortion debate and law professor at the University of California, Davis. “But data suggests teenagers make up a very small part of abortions, so teenagers not being able to get abortions won’t contribute much to an increase in teen pregnancy.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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