Absolutely, we still have 3.6 million births per year, but the problem is teens and young adults. From the ages 15-19 the fertility rate is down 7% and it’s down 70% over the last two decades, meaning we’re telling people that are young not to have babies, to wait until they’re in a more stable life situation till they’re more financially secure, maybe they haven’t found the right partner.

To your point, by the way, you said before we came on the air something really really important: which is we also have the technology to say “okay wait, you’re still going to have a healthy child, you’re still going to be fine because we can support pregnancies much better than we ever have before.”

Of course I want to add to that some downsides: there’s a higher obesity rate that interferes with fertility, there’s a risk of poly cystic ovary and endometriosis, there are more overall medical problems and diets are worse and then we’re talking about all the chemicals in the environment, ultra-processed foods; you might want to have a kid, but maybe as you get older you might not be able to.

My wife by the way, when she was 36 years old was going to have our second kid and I said to her obstetrician “She must be your oldest patient,” he said “She’s my youngest patient.”

Dana, people are having kids in their 30s now, not their 20s. And again, that’s leading to one thing I want to point out: the replacement rate is down to 1.56. Meaning every couple is having on average 1.56 children in the United States. We need 2 or above to keep the population at the same amount.

Maybe you watched a different interview than the one linked, he sounds like he belongs on Fox.