At a White House event on maternal health, the Trump administration addressed the record low birth rate in the U.S. Dr. Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that 1 in 3 Americans either don’t have any children or have less children than they would normally have or, as he put it, they are “under-babied”. The solution is for everyone to do their part and have as many babies as possible. Coming from a more “scientific” angle, RFK, Jr. is concerned with men’s sperm count saying “men (in 1970) had twice the sperm count as our teenagers do today. This is an existential crisis for our country.”
While there is evidence that sperm counts are lower than they were decades ago, it is less clear whether it is the reason for the falling birth rate. Research has shown that what really delays or discourages someone from having children are economic and social conditions. Affordable childcare, a living wage, affordable higher education, and accessible healthcare might actually encourage more people to have more children.
And to address the low sperm count, perhaps look to studies linking microplastics and infertility and how polystyrene exposure affects sperm production?
