Boebert praises high rural teen birth rates while announcing first grandchild

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) is announcing that she’ll soon be “a 36-year-old grandmother,” while praising “rural conservative communities” that “value life.”

The Colorado Republican revealed that the girlfriend of her 17-year-old son, Tyler, is due next month.

“I’m going to tell you all for the first time in a public setting, that not only am I a mom of four boys, but come April, I will be a gigi to a brand new grandson,” Boebert said this week at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event.

The lawmaker described her and her husband as “so excited to welcome this new life into our family.”

“Now any of you who have young children who are giving life, there’s some questions that pop up. There’s some fear that arises,” Boebert told the audience as she was presented with the Moms for America’s “Mothers Influence Award” on Tuesday for taking “an incredible stance in empowering moms, promoting liberty, and raising patriots!”

“Now my son, when I approached him and told him, ‘Tyler, I’m going to be a 36-year-old grandmother,’ he said, ‘Well didn’t you make Granny a 36-year-old granny?’”

“I said, ‘Yes, I did.’ He said, ‘Well, then it’s hereditary.’”

“Nice try, buddy,” Boebert, a far-right conservative with hard-line views on abortion, said to laughs from the crowd.

Boebert has said that she dropped out of high school to take care of her child when she became pregnant as a teen. She said in 2020 that she later received her GED.

“But one of our biggest fears was not what are you going to do? What are people going to say? Our biggest fear is: Are they going to choose life?” Boebert said of her son and his significant other.

“And they did. And we’re so proud of them for making that sacrifice and being selfless in that position to say there’s something greater here,” she said to applause before speaking about teen pregnancy rates.

“There’s something special about rural conservative communities — they value life. If you look at teen pregnancy rates throughout the nation, well, they’re the same in rural and urban areas. However, abortion rates are higher in urban areas, and teen mom rates are higher in rural, conservative areas because we understand the preciousness of the life that is about to be born,” Boebert said.

In 2015, 18.9 out of every 1,000 urban female teenagers gave birth, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, compared to 30.9 out of every 1,000 for those in counties of fewer than 50,000, PBS reported. Since 2007, the nationwide teen birth rate has dropped by approximately half, but it has only fallen by about one-third in rural areas.

Boebert said she and her husband are “working together” with her son and his girlfriend “to make sure that they’re amazing parents, that they have the love and support that they need.”

“We’re adding a wonderful little boy to the Boebert family,” she said.