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  "path": "/2026/04/17/teen-birth-rates-testaments-girls-handmaids-tale-heritage-foundation/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-17T17:39:08.000Z",
  "site": "https://msmagazine.com",
  "tags": [
    "Arts & Entertainment",
    "Health",
    "National",
    "Politics",
    "Activism",
    "Birth Control and Contraception",
    "Donald Trump and the Trump Administration",
    "Film and TV Reviews",
    "In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)",
    "Motherhood",
    "SAVE / SAVE America Act",
    "Sex and Relationships",
    "Sex Education",
    "Television",
    "The Contrarian",
    "The Handmaid's Tale",
    "Women in Film and TV",
    "Women in Television",
    "Young Women and Girls",
    "Fewer Teen Births Is Good, Unless You’re the Patriarchy",
    "Ms. Magazine"
  ],
  "textContent": "How on-brand for the federal government to announce that U.S. birth rates are falling—just as  _The Testaments_ , the long-awaited sequel to  _The Handmaid's Tale_ , dropped on Hulu.\n\nIn the fictional nation of Gilead, first envisioned by Margaret Atwood in her 1985 dystopian novel and expanded on screen for nearly a decade now, declining fertility catalyzed a Christian nationalist revolution in modern-day America, spawning a society rooted in patriarchal dominance and state-sanctioned violence. _The Testaments_ , now three episodes in, is making a deliberate appeal to Gen Z and young viewers, featuring the spectacularly savvy Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday among Gilead’s tradwife-in-training rebels.\n\nDoubly fascinating then, that it is the real-life status of teen birth rates in particular now driving the news. In a drop considered “extraordinary” by statisticians, the number of babies born to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 fell by 7 percent in 2025.\n\nNevertheless, many on the right jumped directly into the fray to publicly lament that teens are having fewer babies.\n\nThe post Fewer Teen Births Is Good, Unless You’re the Patriarchy appeared first on Ms. Magazine.",
  "title": "Fewer Teen Births Is Good, Unless You’re the Patriarchy"
}