At last year’s March for Life rally in Washington, Sen. J.D. Vance told the crowd plainly, “I want more babies in the United States of America,” echoing a broader conservative push to encourage higher birth rates as U.S. fertility declines. Prominent conservatives argue more births are needed to sustain the workforce and provide caregivers for an aging population, and those arguments are increasingly cited to justify new state restrictions on abortion.
Wyoming recently enacted a law banning abortion once a “detectable fetal heartbeat” is present — typically around six weeks of pregnancy — though a federal judge temporarily blocked the law on April 24 while legal challenges proceed. Medical groups including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say it’s clinically inaccurate to call the early cardiac electrical activity visible on ultrasound a true heartbeat: embryos at that stage can show electrical signals but lack developed cardiac valves that produce the familiar heartbeat sound.
Republican state lawmaker and former nurse Evie Brennan, who supported the measure, framed it as a demographic statement. She said the policy sends a message that children matter and argued the state risks becoming stagnant or increasingly aged without a growing population that chooses to stay.
But demographers and researchers caution that abortion restrictions are unlikely to reverse long-term population decline. Suzanne Bell, a demographer at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said bans generally won’t change a state’s overall fertility trajectory. They may create a temporary rise in births: Idaho saw a modest bump after enacting one of the nation’s strictest bans in 2023 — an estimated roughly 240 excess births — yet the state simultaneously lost a substantial share of reproductive health providers, with about 35% fewer OB-GYNs than before the law.
Wyoming has struggled with population loss for decades. A 2024 Harvard Kennedy School working paper found that by their thirties nearly two-thirds of Wyoming natives have left the state, one of the highest out-migration rates in the country. Students and young residents cite limited local industry and job prospects as reasons to relocate. At the University of Wyoming in Laramie, student Claire Lane said many classmates expect to leave to find work in their fields; another student, music major Aidan Freeman, called the state “a bubble” and said he and his partner hope to move to Fort Collins, Colorado, where more opportunities exist.
Harvard researchers recommended policies to make rural areas more economically diverse and to expand housing and services that would help retain young people — measures aimed at addressing the structural reasons residents leave, rather than focusing solely on birth rates.
Brennan acknowledged the six-week ban is not a cure-all for Wyoming’s demographic challenges and said the pro-life movement should broaden its focus to support children after birth. “We have to send the message that not only are you important in utero, but you’re also important on day one when you’re born,” she said, noting the legislature has yet to have robust discussions about postnatal supports.
Legal battles will determine whether the law stands. Pro–abortion rights groups challenged the statute shortly after it passed, and the temporary federal injunction means abortion care is again legally available in the state for now. The district court will consider constitutionality; its ruling could be appealed to the Wyoming Supreme Court, which earlier this year struck down two other sweeping abortion restrictions.