The boys who encompass President Trump today certain have loads of children. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has 9. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth has seven. And Elon Musk has…properly, who’s to say actually? Trump himself is the daddy of 5, and whereas Vice President JD Vance has a reasonably commonplace three, his distaste for “childless cat women” is by now, well-documented.
Now, Trump and his pronatalist posse are reportedly weighing a collection of actions to spice up the US birthrate. According to The New York Instances, Trump administration officers have been assembly with activists and conservative teams to debate proposals designed to spur a child increase, together with providing $5,000 “child bonuses” to new mother and father.
If that seems like an oddly progressive coverage for this administration, it’s not: The bonuses—which the Instances reported may take the shape of a kid tax credit score and would require an act of Congress—would solely apply to oldsters who’re married, a staggeringly unequal profit considering single mother and father usually tend to be Black and Hispanic.
“Our final aim is not only extra infants however extra households shaped,” Emma Waters, a coverage analyst on the Heritage Basis advised the Instances. Heritage, which is among the many teams conferring with the administration on this problem, can also be proposing extra analysis funding on “pure fertility” to encourage girls to chart their menstrual cycles to get pregnant.
One other pronatalist activist, Simone Collins, advised the Instances she has despatched draft government orders to the White Home proposing, amongst different issues, a Nationwide Medal of Motherhood for moms with greater than six kids.
All of this can be a response to the truth that fertility charges within the US have been falling precipitously, dropping to a historic low, according to the Facilities for Illness Management. However the White Home’s obvious curiosity in additional prolific procreation is undercut totally by the decimation of girls’s well being initiatives beneath Trump’s watch. Because the Instances notes, the CDC not too long ago shuttered its Division of Reproductive Well being, which centered on maternal well being. This, following years of increases to maternal mortality charges in America.
On the identical time, well being businesses have reportedly been warned off of funding analysis that a lot as mentions the phrase “girls” in mild of the president’s range, fairness, and inclusion purge. This has triggered deep cuts to analysis into girls’s well being points, even for circumstances as uncontroversial as uterine fibroids.
Now, the Trump administration expects girls to repopulate the nation whereas the nation delivers nothing in return—properly, nothing besides possibly a reasonably medal. Women, you are welcome.
