From the pandemic to porn, here’s how norms around sex are shifting for Gen Z

June 24, 2025

crowd of people walking on a sidewalk

(NPR) – When the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in 2022, the ruling didn’t just eliminate the federal right to abortion; it also ushered in “a generational change in the way that people approach sex,” journalist Carter Sherman says.

Sherman is a reproductive health and justice reporter at The Guardian where she’s covered the real-world results of abortion bans, access to healthcare for trans people, and how technology is reshaping our view of our bodies and our choices. In her new book, The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over its Future, Sherman writes that Gen Z — which the Pew Research Center defines as people born between 1997 and 2012 — are having less sex than previous generations. (Read More)