The COVID birth dearth

America’s birth rate had already reached a record low in 2019, dropping to 58.3 births per 1,000 women, before the COVID pandemic — a phenomenon posing a problem for a country whose safety net for its burgeoning elderly population relies upon the existence of a young, healthy workforce paying into Social Security and Medicare. The declining births weren’t confined to a single racial group or income level — the fertility rate was going down among Black, Hispanic and white women.

But the stork’s deliveries plummeted even further during the pandemic, with researchers now expecting at least 300,000 fewer cute ones in 2021. Researchers think continued school and daycare closures may exacerbate the baby bust, leading to as many as 200,000 additional fewer births this year.

COVID rendered physical contact, and by extension, dating, verboten. For couples, lockdown, a recession and mass death probably weren’t an aphrodisiac.

Women may have delayed plans to conceive after witnessing the pandemic’s disparate impact on mothers. Women initially were forced to give birth alone in hospitals, and must still wear face masks while in labor. Women, faced with the lack of available in-person school and child care, have scaled back their career ambitions or dropped out of the workforce entirely, to assume child-rearing responsibilities for their families.

Another disincentive to childbirth is the lack of paid parental leave for when the little one arrives. The U.S. is one of the only major industrialized countries in the world without a federal paid parental leave requirement. But the decline in births is happening even in places like France and Italy, where paid-leave policies are more robust. Meanwhile, in poorer countries like the Philippines, lack of access to birth control is fueling a spike in births.

When the economic outlook is bleak, when misery and suffering reign supreme, it’s not surprising to find that young men and women who have a choice are struggling to decide whether to bring another human being into the world.