Dr Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s administrator for Medicare and Medicaid, has claimed the US is facing a fertility crisis because “one in three Americans are under-babied.” Speaking at an Oval Office event to mark the launch of moms.gov, the former TV physician encouraged US citizens to have more children.
“So, let me speak a little bit about the reality that one in three Americans are under-babied,” Dr Oz said. “What does under-babied mean? That means that you either don’t have any children or you have less children than you would normally want to have. We have a crisis that’s causing our fertility rate to drop below 1.5. Replacement rate is 2.1.”
According to the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the US fertility rate hit a record low in 2024, with the number of infants born to women aged 15–44 falling to 1.6, below the replacement rate. However, the school noted that the birth rate still exceeds the death rate, so the population is not in decline, and the trend is global.
Dr Oz also praised Trump for “saving Medicaid,” despite his administration making severe cuts to the program last year, which are likely to hit rural America hardest. He claimed $50 billion is being invested in rural healthcare to help Americans “have babies safely.” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has also warned about declining fertility, making dubious claims about sperm levels in teenagers.
Dr Oz predicted there would be “a lot of Trump babies” as a result of IVF treatment reforms, adding: “The fundamental creative force in society is about making babies.” Trump himself raised eyebrows by suggesting that “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is a real ailment.
