The choice to have children is personal to every individual, but it should never come at the cost of one’s future. With the prevalence of online content urging women to have more children and increase the fertility rate, it’s more important than ever for college students to have easy access to birth control and avoid misinformation surrounding reproductive health.
At the annual anti-abortion March for Life event in January, Vice President JD Vance made clear how he and much of the Republican Party view the responsibility of women.
“Our society has failed to recognize the obligation that one generation has to another is a core part of living in a society to begin with,” Vance said. “So, let me say very simply: I want more babies in the United States of America.”
Vance’s remark echoes a familiar sentiment, expressed by many politicians and influential voices on the declining U.S. birth rate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2024 report on birth and fertility rates found the general fertility rate for females ages 15 to 44 declined by 1% from 2023 to 2024. The birth rates for women ages 15 to 34 declined, while the birth rates for women in their early 40s increased, according to the report.
We have hit a point in our history where statistics show women are choosing not to have children when they’re younger and potentially less ready to plan other aspects of their lives around their children, such as their educational or career goals.
While to many this could be a sign that fewer young women are feeling pressured to have kids, the vocal right-leaning masses attempt to leverage data like this to push harmful anti-choice narratives.
University of Minnesota, Rochester, first-year student Mara Jadyn Rodgers said the pressure politicians and conservative news outlets put on women to fill the birth rate gap makes motherhood more stressful. Women may have children because they feel they need to, rather than because it’s right for them.
“If women feel like they have to have children, we’re just going to revert back to how we were even 30, 50 years ago,” Rodgers said. “Now, since a lot of women are becoming educated, it’s less emphasis on becoming a mom early.”
University communications studies professor Emily Winderman said fertility rates have always been political.
“Throughout history, anxieties about the waning birth rate have been truly concerns about the waning white birth rate,” Winderman said. “Reproduction has always been a way that white women in particular have been included in the nation-building project.”
Those who loudly vocalize concerns over women not having enough children often do so to further racist agendas, according to Winderman.
Using declining birth rates as a smoke screen for white nationalism is just one of the insidious ways influential voices in politics attempt to further take away access to fundamental healthcare, such as abortion and birth control.
Online content romanticizing motherhood as the ultimate prize also acts as a tool to discourage the positives of birth control and well-thought-out family planning. An uptick in conservative “trad-wife” content features young women on homesteads in flowy dresses waxing poetic about their ideal futures where they exist as permanent stay-at-home mothers who give birth to, and raise full-time, as many children as possible.
“Anybody can package that to look good for a 60-second TikTok,” Winderman said. “That editing and those production teams are not there when you are up nursing at four o’clock in the morning all by yourself.”
Content intended to grasp young people’s attention, while it may not seem like it, always has a message. The message emphasized by these content creators is the same one expressed by Vance and other conservatives.
The current influx of content surrounding fertility and having children also has the potential to be used as ammunition in the fight against bodily autonomy and reproductive health.
“It’s truly important to have options and access,” Winderman said. “Sexual activity is a given, it’s normal, and having the ability to prevent unwanted pregnancy on one hand, but also birth control can be used for so many things beyond preventing pregnancies.”
Winderman said access to birth control is also important for regulating cycles and treating migraines and polycystic ovary syndrome, among other uses.
To have successful educational journeys, free of the worry about having children too early, we need to be able to push back against harmful narratives tied to declining fertility and birth rates.
We must demystify negative connotations around taking birth control and push for more accessible and affordable options for students and young people.
For students looking for access to birth control or who have questions related to sexual wellness, Boynton Health has many resources available.
“It’s a pretty crucial period to not end up pregnant, or have a situation where you don’t have access to reproductive care,” Rodgers said.
