From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Michelle Cordero, and this is Heritage Explains. Everyone said there'd be a big baby boom after the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Just like snowstorms that force couples to spend a lot of time together indoors, lead to an increase of babies about nine months later.

But what happened was the exact opposite.

According to the CDC, 2020 marked a record low fertility rate of 1.6, and was the sixth straight year with an outright decline in the number of births.

A fertility rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain a stable population.

That would be enough children to replace their parents when they die, also known as replacement-level fertility.

The pandemic and all its uncertainty likely contributed to the 2020 decline, but birth rates were

already declining before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Heritage Expert and today's guest, Rachel Gressler, American women have

been having fewer children for some time now.

Ever since the financial crisis in 2008, births have been in decline.

Gresler says, with astronomical debt rising and birth rates at a historical decline, we were creating a double whammy for future generations.

Fewer people left to pick up a higher tab.

After this short break, Gressler will explain how a decline in birth rates affect the American economy.

The Heritage Foundation has a new website to combat critical race theory.

CRT, as it's known, makes race the centerpiece of all aspects of American life. It categorizes individuals into groups of oppressors and victims.

The idea is infiltrating everything from our politics and education to the workplace and even our military.

Heritage has pulled together the resources that you need to identify CRT in your community and the ways to fight it. We also have a legislation

tracker so you can see what's happening in your state. Visit heritage.org slash CRT to learn more.

Rachel, what type of an effect does the decline in birth rates actually have on the United States?

Well, especially given the financial situation that we're in today with already an enormous amount of debt going into the COVID-19 pandemic and then increasing it massively over this past year, what that means is that we could potentially have a declining number of people to pay off

that debt. In the past, it's always been the reverse. And so you counted on the population

growing and more workers being out there and producing income tax revenue, you know, more people

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