Until at least Thursday, mifepristone can still be mailed, while SCOTUS thinks about the future of a drug we should all be able to access. In the meantime, let’s talk about the teen pregnancy rate. (I found this Norman Rockwell sketch at a junk store in Williamsburg.)
What happened: The fertility rate in the US fell 7 percent in 2025, from 53.8 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age in 2024 to 53.1 (according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the CDC). Within the 7 percent decline are births by teenagers, ages 15-19. According to some folks on the right - Tucker Carlson, Katie Miller, Dr. Mark Siegel - this is not good news.
Teen parents need support. Being young (like still in high school young), pregnant, and parenting comes with a stigma of its own, and the outcomes for some young parents can be rough, physically, economically, educational and mentally. It’s possible that the reason for the lower rates is more media about the realities of teen pregnancy and parenting, and more teens using more effective birth control (or just not having sex). Katie Miller’s tweet (I’m not going to link it) blames hormonal birth control for not just the decline in teen pregnancy, but in the drop in the overall fertility rate and therefore, a sign of the end of human civilization.
What we have here is a deranged cocktail made up of pro-natalism (the kind that doesn’t care if women have identities or educations or access to money, as long as they give birth), a weird fervor for underaged sex (regardless of religious beliefs, apparently), and a disregard for the age of consent (not that big of a surprise, honestly, but deeply creepy and problematic). These are the same folks who advocate against abortion, perpetuate stigma about it, as well as birth control, and contribute to the cycle of shame keeping women and girls trapped.
Action item: Consider what stigma you carry about teen pregnancy and parenting. What stigma have you seen in the media about pregnant and parenting teens? How do you think it overlaps with abortion stigma? With stigma around hormonal birth control?
Next time: TBD