The Three-Child American Family, Under Siege – The New York Times

The pandemic and resulting economic crisis are also likely to affect fertility. It’s too early to say whether fewer babies will be born this year or early next (and there is no comprehensive data on whether pregnancies have declined). Yet 40 percent of women said in a Guttmacher survey in May that because of the pandemic, they had changed their plans about whether or when to have children.

Some parents are deciding not to have more children because of the lack of child care during the pandemic, or fear for their financial future. Others may have delayed fertility treatments or felt it was unsafe to get pregnant during the pandemic.

One-third said they were more careful about using regular contraception because of the pandemic, according to the survey of 2,009 cisgender women. Women who were Black or Hispanic or had low incomes were most likely to have changed their fertility plans; the coronavirus and job losses have disproportionately affected these groups.

The other challenges of 2020 — including political conflict, social unrest and climate crises — add to prospective parents’ uncertainty.

“People look at all these things going wrong and just feel very uncertain,” said Karen Benjamin Guzzo, a sociologist studying fertility at Bowling Green State University. “It’s just this perfect storm of a little too much right now, so lots of people think it’s not the right time to have a baby.”