In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Kamala Harris on November 5, millions of American women—especially those of Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, currently aged from 12 to 27—are despondent and dismayed that Democrats’ campaign focus on abortion policy did not convince more voters to choose Harris. They are convinced that their “my body, my choice” freedom has been stolen from them by the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and that they may now be unable to obtain abortion on-demand everywhere across the nation.

The Democrats’ crude, single-theme campaign focus on abortion completely ignored the reality that the Dobbs decision relegated abortion policy back to the fifty states—where it had historically resided—and that many states are already approving quite permissive pro-choice abortion laws. Abortion was virtually the only well-articulated theme of the Democrats’ 2024 presidential campaign—at least until the campaign rhetoric switched at some point to the “Trump-is-facist-Nazi” meme, which apparently few voters believed was either true, revelatory, or even interesting because they had heard it all during his first term in office. And to calm voters’ fears, Donald Trump averred that he would not even sign federal legislation banning abortion…..

As for longer-range outcomes, if Gen Z women actually carry out their threats to exercise the four “no” commands of the 4B Movement over the next four years, and perhaps even past that point, a logical guess might be a further reduction in the US fertility and birth rates. This could have major implications for population growth, economic growth, and the future of federal intergenerational transfer programs such as Social Security and Medicare. These transfer programs are currently in jeopardy for future generations as their trust funds face anticipated insolvency within about ten years if Congress takes no measures to avert this outcome.