Last month, The University of Houston’s Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality released a report on the Texas Heartbeat Act. It found that the Texas fertility rate increased by 2 percentage points in 2022, in large part because of the Heartbeat Act. This was the first increase in Lone Star State’s fertility rate since 2014. The report was covered by a range of mainstream media outlets including NBC News, the Hill, Axios, and the Texas Tribune.
Breaking the numbers down: The Heartbeat Act resulted in nearly 8,000 more children being born in Texas in 2022. Since, the Texas Heartbeat Act took effect on September 1, 2021, it would not have had a substantial effect on the Texas fertility rate until March or April 2022. Given that, this finding is consistent with my November 2022 Lozier Institute study and with a June 2023 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) study. Both found that the Texas Heartbeat Act resulted in approximately 1,000 more children being born every month.
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