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

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
(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.

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.
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.
Fuck these ghouls
Absolutely not.
Also I'm not young enough for them apparently.
They dont care how hard life is for people, they desperatly need more lives to ruin.
"Not enough teenagers are being locked into poverty with unwanted children. This is bad for the oligarchs."
not enough meat for the grinder, we got too many wars on the books keep them babies comin!
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.
Fewer girls to rape. Their worst fear.
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.
Ruin your kids life early that is the republican motto. Trap them in never ending wage slavery.
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.
Being a teen mom sky rockets the chance your children will become parents as teens
I don't like your coworker.
WTF


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. ☠️
USA, you're becoming what you hate the most!
For ~40% of Americans, this isn't true. They hate Democrats more.
Excuse me while I go barf.
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.
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.
Unfortunately, child marriage is still legal in a shocking number of states
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.
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.
"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?"
WHY are Children NOT having Kids?
-Protect The Kids TM Republicans!
These were the same morons that decried teen pregnancy 20+ years ago
Someone should check that doctor's hard-drives.
Oh no! Sex ed is working and preventing non-ideal pregnancies?! The sky must be falling!
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.
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.
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
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.
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
PEDOPHILE PROPAGANDA. MAKE PEDOPHILES AFRAID AGAIN. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER-JM
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
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?
Party of pedophiles
Sooo more life destroying, unplanned underage pregnancies?
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.
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.
politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:

- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News