American fertility rates have fallen to new lows and the number of births has plummeted to the lowest level in decades, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The public health agency recently reported that there were 54.4 births per 1,000 females between the ages of fifteen and forty-four last year, marking a 3% decrease from 2022. The newest figure marks a nearly 22% decrease from fertility rates in 2007, when there were 69.3 births per 1,000 females between the ages of fifteen and forty-four.

The total number of births has also declined significantly: there were almost 3.6 million births last year, representing a 2% decrease from 2022 and the lowest reading since 1979. The overall fertility rate for American women has fallen to 1.6 overall births per woman, a level which falls considerably below the 2.1 overall births per woman needed to sustain a population.

Younger women and teenagers have seen birth rates decline in recent years relative to women in their thirties and forties as more females pursue education and careers: last year, however, birth rates for almost all cohorts fell, while birth rates for women in their forties remained flat.

Brett Baggett, a pastor of Ekklesia Muskogee in Oklahoma, said in comments to The Sentinel that birth rates are falling over a combination of health and cultural factors.

“There are surely multiple causes for decrease in fertility rates,” he remarked. “The biggest causes though are, first, the increase or hormonal birth control, which are not only abortifacient, but also decrease the woman’s ability to conceive even after she has gotten off of them; second, the decrease in testosterone levels in men, mostly caused by terrible nutrition as well as lack of physical fitness; and, third, infertility relates are surely plummeting because many people see children as a curse rather than a blessing.”

Baggett advised that Christians should recall the command of God to “be fruitful and multiply so that the earth may be filled with image-bearers that glorify him,” as well as remember that “children are a blessing” throughout the narrative of the Bible.

“In previous centuries, and pretty much for all of church history, Christians understood these simple truths and labored to receive from the Lord as many blessings as he would choose to give them,” he told The Sentinel. “The Lord opens and closes the womb by his sovereign providence. Why would you close something he has opened to give you blessings through? Christians should have as many children as possible and labor to train them up through faith in Christ, in the ways of Christ, to fire them like arrows into the world for the glory of Christ.”