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.”
Excuse me while I go barf.
Nowhere in the US can 15 year olds legally consent to sex. The age of consent is 16, 17, or 18 depending on the state. This moron is literally supporting child rape.
They can consent to other 15 year olds
didnt know that (im not in amerikkka so idk the details of their laws)
I remember when teenage pregnancy was the issue of the day and how we had too many young sluts just giving it away.
I guess the zeitgeist shifts when we’re a nation governed by pedos
they’re always supportive of teenage pregnancy when it’s older men.
Kinda puts the abstinence only sex ed in a different light. I guess we were just supposed to push out babies and live in trailers the whole time.
Well yes, actually. There’s data from the 1400s that abstinence isn’t sex education and results in higher teen pregnancy rates.
If the goal was ever to stop teen pregnancy they’d just encourage porn use among teens and free condoms in any third space they congregate.
Prisons are better for their profits.
lamenting that birth rates are down among teenagers aged 15 to 19.
Wait, they want 15 year-old having kids?!!
Oh wait, it’s Faux News. Yeah, gotta keep them young’uns overwhelmed with babies so they don’t have time to do horrible things like express their concerns, or educate themselves, or aspire to their own dreams. Makes perfect sense.
If you watch the video, it’s much less strange in context (in fact, it’s not strange at all, although the guy himself is a religious crackpot). The reason he mentions “15 to 19” at all is because that’s the specific demographic in the statistic they have and were talking about. He used that among other things to suggest that people are having kids much later than they used to, but he doesn’t specifically talk about declining teen pregnancy like it’s a bad thing. Like seriously, watch the video; I don’t know what the fuck Mediaite is doing with this headline except for ragebait. I genuinely thought there would be even a little hint of weirdness, but no?? Somebody else please watch the clip and tell me what they think is wrong with it re: teen pregnancies.
The clip is 2:08 long; I encourage anyone who thinks this is bullshit apologia to watch it. I’m legitimately shocked that I’m having to defend something someone said on Fox News. The whole time watching it I was wondering when they were going to get to the shocking, deranged part.
So calling it a “problem” was just a poor choice of words?
Yeah, I really think it is. It’s more evident if you watch the whole video (and I really think you should). I think he was implicating 15 to 19 rates as partial evidence that ages of pregnant women are climbing – but not problematic unto itself. Later in the video, he makes the claim that people are gravitating to waiting until they’re into their 30s to have kids. I.e. the “problem” isn’t specifically that teens are getting pregnant less; a drop in teen pregnancies is just used as a symptom of the reasons people are waiting until late 20s, 30s, or never to have kids.
Points that he makes throughout the segment are things like advances in medical technology making late pregnancies much more viable, and that certainly isn’t targeted at teen pregnancies.
Keep in mind that I have zero respect for this guy and would have no reason to doubt he would support teen pregnancies as “god’s will” or whatever the shit: the cover of his book shown in the segment tells it all. Even through that lens, I just don’t see it as anything more than a poor choice of words that can be easily quoted without the full surrounding context. I don’t blame anyone who comes away from this thinking I’m wrong; he’s earned not having a slip-up taken charitably.
I appreciate everything you’ve done so far here- I mean no offense in saying this, but is there any chance you’d accept that maybe, you’re viewing it through a green lens?
I really tried not to. I even paused the segment when it showed his book to find out it was talking about “healing through God” – which to me grossly crosses a line for what a medical doctor should be doing. I didn’t go into the video thinking “this is bullshit”; I went into it because that’s standard practice I have for reading “person says X”-type articles like this. That’s why I was in such disbelief.
I don’t even like his rhetoric about how waiting for stability is some problem in need of solving because young people need to sacrifice their lives for
the greater goodmuh birthrate.In sum, I think this guy’s a shithead. What I don’t think is that this guy is advocating for 15-year-olds getting pregnant like the headline and the ever-convenient typo in the quote suggest.
maybe people who had living wages would be able to afford more kids… but something tells me they won’t address that. they’ll simply take away birth control and abortion.
fucking ghouls
Mediaite posting rage bait headlines? Surely not!
They truly want a third world economy
A third world economy is quite nice for the folks on top. Until they’re deposed and replaced.
I feel it is important to point out that a third world economy is not necessary for things like that!
Yes but you and I are far smarter than the current US government.
WHY are Children NOT having Kids?
-Protect The Kids TM Republicans!
Gentle reminder that their main concern is not having enough targets to rape.
It feels so weird hearing shit like this after spending your teenage years hearing about the horrors of teenage pregnancy.
“Teenage Pregnancy” was a financial problem for Boomer parents, back in the 70s/80s
Now it’s not.
Simple as
The 1.56 needs to be over 2 only makes sense if you deny all immigrants access. I would say the population of the U.S. has never declined in its history but that wouldn’t be true. We fell by .06% in 1918 do to a couple ignoramus things like the Spanish Flu and world war 1.
If you want population increase… Don’t do what Trump has done
We don’t want a population increase
Capitalism does, and/or the idea of terrible taxation laws. If we taxed wealth, we wouldn’t need to grow our population
If you want population increase… Don’t do what Trump has done
Some of our highest population rates came under Presidents like Trump. The Napoleonic Wars were great for US economic expansion
True, but women were also popping out 7 field hands per person at the time… And we need 15/16 less field hands now. So immigration or not, we are above schedule. 7 kids, yikes. But shit to be afford 7 kids… wow
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
You know, I bet if we didn’t just call them “women of childbearing age”, we might have a few more kids out there… C’mon NCHS, put some romance in your stats.
Capitalism contributes, yes. But, if humanity stays below replacement rate, humanity goes extinct.
Also, no matter how you distribute resources, there are periods of life when your productivity is less that what you need to survive. Everyone has this for many years at the beginning of their life, and those lucky enough to live long enough will have this toward the end of their lives, as aging is the disability that comes for us all. The proven method to sustain persons during those periods is to have enough people in their productive years; it generally requires more than the replacement rate. And, if that doesn’t happen, the less productive suffer and die more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufmu1WD2TSk
All that said, I’m against encouraging teenage pregnancy, and for full bodily autonomy – no one should be forced to let anyone else use their uterus.
The Earth’s population has nearly doubled in my lifetime. I’m pretty sure we’re not quite endangered yet. I’ll also point out that poor countries that tend to spawn brown players are well above replacement levels if you count those as people.
I’m against encouraging teenage pregnancy
Encouraging teenage pregnancy isn’t the problem. The problem is the encouragement in general. As said, full bodily autonomy - it should remain a right for all.
The problem is the encouragement in general
I don’t see why that’s a problem. I think it could come in the form of actual benefits, not a just verbal haranguing / extolling based on (not) having children, but that it’s good for the birth rate to be slightly above replacement and correcting any divergence should be encouraged.
You’re sabotaging your own argument here. You stated full body autonomy to be a right to then dismiss that within this statement.
no one should be forced to let anyone else use their uterus
Tell me, how does this relate to your current argument?
humanity goes extinct.
… the population decreases. The parts of the population reproducing less becomes smaller than the part reproducing more… and reproduction naturally goes above replacement rate again… Because replacement rate decreases with the population size
But, if humanity stays below replacement rate, humanity goes extinct.
I don’t think this is a real risk. And if it were, it certainly won’t be anytime soon. Fewer people means fewer mouths to feed, fewer homes to build/maintain and less consumption in general, which given how the planet is struggling to continue balance with current human resource consumption, a gradual decline in human population would probably be beneficial in the long run.
To actually threaten humanity’s continued existence the number of humans would need to dwindle so low that the societial and the medical infrastructure that permits/causes the declining birth rates would completely collapse and people would naturally start having more kids again in order to keep up with the work on the farms that most people would need to work on at that scale of society
Edit: Put more susinctly, the current declining birth rates are a because of societal changes, not biological ones
it certainly won’t be anytime soon.
Agreed. I think globally we are still above replacement rate.
Fewer people means fewer mouths to feed, fewer homes to build/maintain and less consumption in general
Yes, but no. As the video I linked points out, because of the time delay you get fewer people with maximum productivity while still needed to support people that have sub-self-sustaining productivity. Eventually, you might get to a smaller population that choose to return to above replacement rate, but the demographic squeeze don’t got away for another 20-30 years. Once it starts you are stuck in a demographic squeeze, it makes it even harder on everyone, making that choice “harder”.
That is a simplification. Sub-self-sustaining productivity doesn’t exactly track with age, and how much it takes to sustain a joyful life varies based on a lot of factors; it sort of tracks downward but can also go up if economies of scale shirk or when a new essential utility is introduced by technology.
Why are they so afraid of declining population?
Also, they know what to do to change that, but they won’t because that would mean less money flowing to the top.
Fuck 'em.
My adult son told me he wasn’t planning on having kids, and said, “Good. I think that’s right choice.”
They need to keep pumping out low IQ voters because the smart ones keep leaving the party.
There’s a very funny juxtaposition between what they actually care about (white children) and what you seem to suggest. Sort of a reverse eugenics theory, where they need more white people because white people are naturally dumber.
They don’t only want white people , they want poor, uneducated white people. That’s why they work so hard to get teenagers pregnant, take away school lunches and prenatal care, take away abortion rights. That’s how they build their base of uneducated impoverished white people.
They don’t only want white people , they want poor, uneducated white people.
Eh. You need a well defined underclass. One of the “perks” of racism is being able to identify at a glance who the in group is supposed to be.
That’s how they build their base of uneducated impoverished white people.
Plenty of the conservative base is well educated and well off.
These were the same morons that decried teen pregnancy 20+ years ago
Sure, they didn’t need it then. Apparently now they need it. Times change. 😮
Trying to soften the idea of statutory rape. Nothing will make it okay that donald trump fucked children, no matter how hard he tries to corrupt our views. He will be fed to the woodchipper.
