America's birth rate has hit a record low, according to federal data released the same week Donald Trump publicly nicknamed himself the 'fertilisation president.'
On 9 April 2026, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics published provisional birth data showing the United States recorded approximately 3.6 million live births in 2025, a 1% decline from the prior year and the lowest figure in the nearly two decades of continuous decline the agency has tracked. The report landed just weeks after Trump, at a White House Women's History Month celebration on 12 March 2026, told the assembled crowd: 'I'll be known as the fertilisation president and that's OK.' The juxtaposition drew immediate attention.
