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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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.”

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[-] MrSelfDestruct25@fedinsfw.app 215 points 1 week ago
[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 60 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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 a specific demographic in a statistic that he used, 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.

(Side note: the host looks like a bootleg Rhea Seehorn.)


Edit: The Mediaite transcript of the quote below is wrong in a subtle but, I think, very important way. Please see edit in comment below.

[-] Jerb322@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago

So calling it a "problem" was just a poor choice of words?

[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

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

[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

(Edit: Please see edit first for where I just realized this disconnect between reading and viewing might be coming from.)

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 that underage 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.


EDIT: We weren't even talking about the same "it" here. Something I just noticed reading that again (and maybe why I didn't think it was fucked-up watching it): that Mediaite version of the quote gets it wrong in a subtle but very important way. The real quote is: "But the problem is teens and young adults. [keeping in mind 18 and 19 are teens] From ages 15 to 19 – the fertility rate is down seven percent [...]" Notice that there's a full stop in there. That's the way he says it. "Teens and young adults" in a healthy-ish sense of pregnancy (I don't think pregnancies at 18 are a great idea, but you do you, queen) would, to me, refer to 18 to 25-ish. Whereas the lack of a full stop (that's definitely present in his speech) implies "teens and young adults" means "15 to 19 exclusively". That distinct cut-off actually changes the meaning of what he's saying.

  • In the segment: "teens and young adults" having pregnancies later is the problem. Here's 15 to 19 to show that we're having pregnancies later, and here are some social factors that could explain that which I'll then use to argue is similar in young adults.
  • In the subtly malformed quote: "15 to 19" having pregnancies later is the problem.

The "it" I was talking about was having them so close together. The "it" you were talking about was having 15 to 19 being a problem.

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[-] yesman@lemmy.world 128 points 1 week ago
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[-] TheGoldenV@lemmy.world 89 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today 23 points 1 week ago

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.

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[-] devolution@lemmy.world 78 points 1 week ago

I don't get what is so fucking hard for these pedophile conservative fucks to understand. When you make life fucking impossible to live, no one wants to bring a child into the world.

Instead, their response is, "if we fuck children, we can raise the birth rate."

Fuck these ghouls. They just all need to die already.

[-] halloween_spookster@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago

Fuck these ghouls

Absolutely not.

Also I'm not young enough for them apparently.

[-] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

They dont care how hard life is for people, they desperatly need more lives to ruin.

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[-] null@lemmy.org 74 points 1 week ago

"Not enough teenagers are being locked into poverty with unwanted children. This is bad for the oligarchs."

[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

not enough meat for the grinder, we got too many wars on the books keep them babies comin!

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 19 points 1 week ago

I feel like that's kind of the core of the birth rate panics across the whole age spectrum by the billionaires. None of these fuckers think 20 years in advance to care about a smaller future workforce, but what a low birthdate impacts immediately is the financial solvency of those potential childrearing parents. Fewer and later births means one fewer pressure they can use to exploit workers.

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[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

Fewer girls to rape. Their worst fear.

[-] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 62 points 1 week ago

I have a female coworker and her daughter is currently eight months pregnant at 14 with a 17-year-old father. She couldn’t be happier. She is also a hardcore republican and a diehard Trump supporter.

[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 50 points 1 week ago

Ruin your kids life early that is the republican motto. Trap them in never ending wage slavery.

[-] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

Yep exactly, it runs in her family. She was pregnant with her first baby at 15 and her husband was in his early 40’s. Her husband is older than her dad by 5 years. She is currently 41 and her husband is 73. She also has a younger sister like 5 years younger and I believe she basically did the same thing being pregnant at 15-16 with a much older man.

[-] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Being a teen mom sky rockets the chance your children will become parents as teens

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[-] Jax@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 week ago

I don't like your coworker.

[-] FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
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[-] leriotdelac@lemmy.zip 57 points 1 week ago

I'm going nuts. I'm from Russia, and Russian officials say insane stuff, and then I read news from the US, and it's the same shit, side view.

Why? Its insane, and it only gets worse. When I lived in the US during Tramp's first term, it wasn't that crazy, despite having+- same names in high places. Now, it's like another country, and too much alike my insane motherland. USA, you're becoming what you hate the most!

Looneytunes, all of them. ☠️

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 1 week ago

USA, you're becoming what you hate the most!

For ~40% of Americans, this isn't true. They hate Democrats more.

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[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago

Excuse me while I go barf.

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 36 points 1 week ago

They truly want a third world economy

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago

A third world economy is quite nice for the folks on top. Until they’re deposed and replaced.

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[-] Sunflier@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago

He's advocating for girls under 18 to have children? 18 is the age of majority. If he's advocating for sexual contact with children, he needs to be put on a list.

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately, child marriage is still legal in a shocking number of states

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[-] moakley@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago

The replacement rate is down to 1.56, meaning every couple is having, on average, 1.56 children in the United States. We need two or above to keep the population at the same amount.

There's actually another way to keep the population up, and it's great for America economically and culturally, and it makes the world a better place at the same time.

[-] running_ragged@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

Or maybe we give up on an economic model that requires unending population growth? Since you know, we live on a finite planet?

We have to find a path to degrowth. Stop repeating talking points that imply population growth is our only path forward.

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[-] Randelung@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago

"We beat teen pregnancy!" - "Oh no!"

Elaborated: "Oh no! Fewer poverty-locked consumer slaves! Who do we convince breast feeding is unhealthy and peddle formula to? How will we paint immigration as a bad thing if unemployment goes down? What if - heaven forbid - social mobility goes up?"

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[-] BigMacHole 26 points 1 week ago

WHY are Children NOT having Kids?

-Protect The Kids TM Republicans!

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[-] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

These were the same morons that decried teen pregnancy 20+ years ago

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[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

Someone should check that doctor's hard-drives.

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[-] scathliath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 week ago

Oh no! Sex ed is working and preventing non-ideal pregnancies?! The sky must be falling!

[-] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

Of course this is a major problem for the pedophile class. For the last 250 years the American Empire was able to function thanks to a countless number of uneducated people locked into perpetual poverty, having children at 14.

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[-] bridgeburner@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

I think not having kids is the only realistic way to fight those capitalistic overlords. They can't continue to get richer if the workforce, who does all the dirty work for them, keeps shrinking.

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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

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[-] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

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."

[-] realitista@lemmus.org 12 points 1 week ago

They need to keep pumping out low IQ voters because the smart ones keep leaving the party.

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[-] MightyPez@fedia.io 17 points 1 week ago

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

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[-] Formfiller@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

PEDOPHILE PROPAGANDA. MAKE PEDOPHILES AFRAID AGAIN. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER-JM

[-] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

This is actually one of the only demographics where fertility has fallen. Adult women have been having more or less the same amount of kids for a while now

[-] Bazell@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 week ago

More teens became smart and self aware enough to not get pregnant in so young age by effectively using different types of contraception. And guy says that this is a bad thing. What? 🫪

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[-] sturmblast@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

Party of pedophiles

[-] Avicenna@programming.dev 13 points 1 week ago

Sooo more life destroying, unplanned underage pregnancies?

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[-] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 12 points 1 week ago

Maybe it's because people can't afford to feed themselves and actually realise that having 1-2 additional mouths to feed isn't a recipe for happiness.

He should focus on people having free education, free healthcare, jobs that allow them to have a decent life, but he and pieces of shit like him ruined millions of lives and will ruin millions more and a failing economy won't stimulate a population boom.

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[-] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

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.

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this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
576 points (97.1% liked)

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