In today’s political debates, “pro-family” rhetoric is everywhere, driven, in part, by concerns around a decline in the number of births every year in the United States. In 2023 , there were 1.6 births per woman, down from 2.1 in 1990. That drop puts our country below the “replacement rate,” which allows a population to replace itself from generation to generation.

This is more than an academic problem . As fewer babies are born, the ratio of working-age people to retirees declines, putting significant strain on our economy. That’s because workers make the economy run and contribute to it through spending and taxes, while dependents—children and the elderly—rely on the systems those tax dollars support.

The good news is that Americans are already overwhelmingly pro-children. A 202

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