Quote Originally Posted by revelarts View Post
COVID led to the biggest drop in births in 50 years. But not in every state.
Adrianna Rodriguez
USA TODAY
april 23

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...d/11639988002/


But it was "Covid" that did it ...not anything else...-cough-
Did you actually read your link?

They discovered fluctuating fertility rates in some states were more strongly linked to demographic, economic and political factors rather than COVID-19 cases, suggesting family planning could have been partly stunted by consequences of the pandemic rather than the disease itself.

U.S. births had been declining for more than a decade since before COVID-19, but they dropped 4% from 2019 to 2020, according to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. Births increased by 1% from 2020 to 2021 but haven't recovered to pre-pandemic rates.

For example, politically liberal places like New York and Washington, D.C., had the highest social distancing indexes and the lowest fertility rates, while conservative states like Idaho and Montana had the lowest social distancing indexes and the highest fertility rates.

Fertility rates have historically followed economic factors, but the study’s findings suggested that may have been exacerbated during the pandemic.
Researchers found states with greater income inequality, higher percentage of college-degree earners, and larger drops in employment at the start of the pandemic saw the biggest changes in fertility rates.
But yes, lazy headlines; par for the course.