(NewsNation) — Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz is saying some of the U.S. population is “underbabied.”

“That means that you either don’t have children or you have less children than you’d want to have,” Oz said during a White House event on Monday. He pointed to the falling fertility rate in the U.S. and called it a “fertility crisis.”

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According to data released by the National Center for Health Statistics, the fertility rate fell a little more than 1% in 2025. In that year, there were 53.1 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44.

To replace a population, researchers say each woman needs to have 2.1 children during their lives. In 2024, the most recent year where data is available, the fertility rate was 1.6 births per woman.

“We’re way below what we need to replace the people that we have in America,” Oz said.

He pointed to the challenges people in rural America face when it comes to maternal health. In rural parts of the country, the maternal mortality rate reached 39.7 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to The Commonwealth Fund.

To address the issue, the Trump administration has created a $50 billion fund called the Rural Health Transformation Program to help rural hospitals struggling across all areas of care, especially maternal care.

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The program has led to more doctors being trained for hospitals in the rural U.S., using new technology and telehealth services being introduced as well to help women deliver babies wherever they live to combat a shortage of maternity wards.

“Your zip code should not determine your mortality rate if you’re having a baby,” Oz said. “That is going to change.”

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