Baby Boom, Baby Bust

There was an overall decrease in American fertility during the pandemic. However, The red states had baby boom, the blue states had a bust. 

McCleary’s experience was not unusual. Early in the COVID pandemic, pundits predicted a baby boom because they believed that people who were forced to stay home to avoid the virus had more time to conceive children. Instead the opposite happened: a baby bust. Yet while the country as a whole saw declines in fertility rates in the pandemic’s first year, a recent study suggests that the rates in some states increased.

Yes, it's Scientific American, but still. There seems to be something cultural happening. Having children is an expression of hope about where the world is going, or at least where your world is going. It used to be true, from a study I read twenty years ago, that young liberals were much more likely to endorse the sentiment that it is a terrible time to bring a child into the world now. I don't know if that has change, but this would seem to speak against it.