The number of babies born in the United States fell again in 2025, with the CDC reporting 3.6 million births, a 1% decline from 2024 and down 23% since 2007. The fertility rate dropped to 53.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. The Trump administration has called for “a new baby boom” and is proposing to reshape Title X, the federal government’s only dedicated family planning program.
Shifting Program Focus
In early April, the Department of Health and Human Services invited nonprofit organizations to apply for Title X grants for fiscal year 2027. The 67-page Notice of Funding Opportunity included only one mention of contraception, describing it as overprescribed, associated with negative side effects, and part of a broader “overreliance on pharmaceutical and surgical treatments.”
The grant notification reshapes the program from its traditional public health intervention efforts to focus on fertility, family formation, and reproductive health conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, low testosterone, and erectile dysfunction. While Title X will continue to help women achieve healthy pregnancies, the document does not explicitly reference preventing unintended pregnancies, a long-standing goal of the program.
For more than five decades, Title X has been geared with bipartisan support toward giving low-income women access to contraception, STI screening, and reproductive health care regardless of ability to pay. At its peak, the program served more than 5 million patients per year.
Health Outcomes Concerns
The United States already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among wealthy nations, with 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births as of 2024. According to the CDC, 4 in 5 pregnancy-related deaths may be preventable. Medical research shows pregnancy carries substantially higher risks of blood clots, stroke, and cardiovascular complications than hormonal contraception. Since Trump returned to office, more than a dozen Title X grantees have had their grants frozen, forcing some health centers to stop delivering services, lay off staff, or close.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-birth-rate-pregnancy-contraception-title-x/