Fertility in the Heart of the COVID-19 Storm

We describe how the COVID-19 pandemic affected reproductive choices in New York City, the most acutely impacted area of the United States. We contrast changes in New York City with reproductive outcomes in the rest of the US. We find that births to New York City residents fell 8.4% more between March 2020 and February 2021 than would have been expected given trends before the pandemic. Births to US-born residents of New York City fell 5.5% over the same year, triple the decline in the rest of the US. Births to foreign-born New York City residents fell 11.4%, twice the decline in the rest of the US. Reported induced and spontaneous abortions to New York City residents fell precipitously whereas induced abortions nation-wide rose slightly. The acute downturn and robust recovery in New York City births maps closely with the spike in mortality and its rapid decline three months later.