We want more babies. In fact, America needs more babies.
President Donald Trump's executive order “Expanding Access to In Vitro Fertilization” was hailed by many this week as a logical “fix” for our national baby bust. Need more babies? Let’s make more babies.
The logic fails.
An emphasis on artificial assisted reproductive technologies (ART) like IVF will only make the problem worse in the long term. You can’t fix a baby bust with a technology designed to destroy human life. (Between 90 and 93 percent of children manufactured during the process are either destroyed or remain frozen indefinitely in stasis.)
IVF – which accounts for the lion’s share of a $5.67 billion fertility industry – purposefully ignores the causes of infertility while compounding the cultural pressures that led directly to the demographic crisis facing the West.
There is no question that a “birth dearth” threatens the United States: Fertility rates have been declining since the mid-1800s but went into freefall around 1960. In 2021, 26 states reported more deaths than births.
The repercussions will be devastating for the future of individuals, families, communities, the nation, and even the entire globe. J.D. Vance and Elon Musk among many others have consistently warned about the impending economic fallout from depopulation. A shrinking workforce, taxpayer pool, and demand for housing (among other factors) will lead to a breakdown of financial systems, infrastructure, and communities.
But we’re not just talking about a lack of babies. The West is suffering from a true crisis of fertility itself. To put it bluntly, this is what we should be worried about when it comes to “reproductive health.”
How do we know? One indicator is the growing chasm between the number of children women say they want to have (2.7) and the number they are likely to have (1.6). When couples do decide to “opt in” to motherhood, we also see an increasing percentage of women are unable to conceive naturally.
Many understudied factors can diminish both female and male fertility at a societal level—microplastics, stress, pesticides, obesity, and substance abuse all play a role. Even more devastating for women has been societal pressures to delay childbearing past the age of 35 in order to “build a career” after the pattern of men. Other cultural trends (and family-unfriendly policies) make choosing to get married and have babies during a woman’s optimal childbearing years incredibly difficult.
Today 1 in 6 married couples – and an astonishing 1 in 5 women – are clinically infertile. If any other human body system had a 20% failure rate, public health officials would demand a thorough investigation into the root causes of such a crisis.
Instead, after 12 months of “trying naturally” to conceive, American couples are referred to the ART industry to begin IVF (or other artificial) “treatments.” In short, IVF is an exploitative industry that preys on heartbroken couples while killing more children than it creates.
The largely unregulated industry rests on a profoundly disordered vision for a restored culture of babymaking. IVF separates the “components” of a human child and lovemaking into separable parts in order to manufacture a “product.” This “solution” to infertility dehumanizes the human child. It also fails to address the physical, emotional, cultural, and, yes, spiritual factors at play in our demographic freefall.
As such, any resources allocated to IVF will in the end only guarantee the failure of a “pro-baby/pro-family” movement.
The Trump administration has worked at breakneck speed in its first weeks to undo devastating progressivist policies and bureaucratic structures. The president has assembled a formidable team of disruptors and builders with the creative power to address the root causes of America’s baby bust.
Let’s harness that energy and start seeking real solutions.
Erika J. Ahern is a Catholic journalist, staff writer, and podcast co-host for CatholicVote's The LOOP. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, Todd, and their six children.
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