Hello and welcome to The Excer. I'm Michael McCartor, Vice President and Group Editor of the Opinion Sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA Today.

This is a bonus episode of The Excert, highlighting the series from USA Today's opinion team that's known as Forum.

It's a weekly space dedicated to showcasing views from across the political

spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. Today, we're hearing from a few folks

about their feelings on the fertility rate in America. The U.S. fertility rate dropped

to a historic low in 2023 to only 3.6 million births.

So we asked, does the low birth rate concern you?

Do you agree with millennials and gen Ziers who are waiting longer to have kids or deciding not to have them at all?

Here are some of their answers.

I am not concerned about the declining U.S. birth rate because I feel that puts a little too much pressure on the people they're expecting it from,

just because most of the concerns

about the U.S. birth rate have to do with like paying for like retirement for older generations

and not so much about the quality of the life of the people who have to create those future

generations.

That was Essence Tillery. She's 33 and lives in Highland Park, Illinois. We also asked readers,

what could be done to increase the birth rate? And what went into their personal decision about

having kids? To increase the birth and fertility rate in America, like two things. One, the

standard stuff, free health care, child care, more flexible work

options would be a start to make it easier for people. But also, I definitely think we have to

look at some of the environmental factors, because I think we haven't really addressed pollution

and the role microplastics have. Like, why we have rising infertility, it's probably

because of the cred that's in our environment, but no one's willing to hold corporations accountable.

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