LAUSR

Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic on 11th March 2020 by the World Health Organization, halting the principal income activities worldwide. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the imminent economic recession will be worse than the global financial crisis of 2008, which severely affected the economy of Southern-European countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain. There was an abysmal drop of the Spanish yearly population growth curve as families could not afford having children in that economic context, only worsening the already existing demographic problems: Spain has a constantly ageing population and one of the lowest fertility indicators in Europe. Taking into consideration that female age is the most important independent variable of success at the time of conception, probably thousands of potentially fertile couples were lost while waiting for more promising circumstances. With the COVID-19 pandemic we are facing a similar situation, where reproductive rights are imperiled by not being able to choose when to have children due to economic coercion. Therefore, governments worldwide should take measures to palliate the possible sociodemographic crisis that will follow the economic recession and try to ease the burden that many families might face during the following years