The push for women to have more children has a powerful ally: Trump
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The White House is emerging as a powerful ally of the burgeoning movement of people who want women to have more children, but there's little emphasis on the unique level of danger that birth poses in the U.S.
Why it matters: The U.S. population is aging, presenting complex economic and health care challenges that "pro-natalists" argue should be addressed through raising fertility rates. At the same time, the country is facing an ongoing maternal mortality crisis and a politically fraught debate over women's reproductive health that's had widespread ripple effects.
- The pro-natalist movement is splintered into factions with different views, including some with restrictive definitions of what constitutes a family. There's also infighting over exactly how women should be reproducing — with debate around IVF and genetic screening.
- Some of its most controversial adherents hold racist views that encouraging white people to have more babies could help maintain the race's stability.
Driving the news: The White House is soliciting ideas about how to get more Americans to marry and have more babies, the New York Times recently reported.
- Some proposals so far include prestigious government-backed perks for people who are married or have children, cash "baby bonuses," and government funding for educating women about their menstrual cycles, per the Times.
- Higher birthrate advocates are confident that fertility issues will become a priority for the Trump administration.
- Trump "is proudly implementing policies to uplift American families," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the NYT. While speaking at a Women's History Month event last month, Trump said he'll be known as "the fertilization president."
State of play: The natalist movement has recently received a wave of media attention, sparking in-depth profiles examining key members and philosophies.
- A separate NYT story recently profiled an event held in Austin called the Natal Conference, which brought together both Christian conservatives and Silicon Valley technologists to discuss how to get people to have more babies.
- Although the movement tends to skew right, it also attracts some more progressive voices — including those who criticize the inclusion of some far-right members, like white supremacists and misogynists calling for a return of traditional gender roles.
- Some of the movement's emerging public faces embrace procreation methods controversial among the political right. One couple profiled in February in the Washington Post has used IVF and genetic selection in procreating their — should all go well — soon-to-be-five children.
- And, of course, Elon Musk's prolific procreation has received attention lately, especially after the Wall Street Journal published a story on the tactics he uses to "manage" his babies and their mothers.
Between the lines: Reasons behind the declining U.S. birth rate are varied, and women are having children later in life compared with a few decades ago, giving them a shorter window to have kids.
- But beyond concerns about costs or finding the right partner looms a stark reality: Giving birth in the U.S. is more dangerous than in other high-income countries, and that's especially true for Black women.
- More than 80% of U.S. maternal deaths are likely preventable, per the Commonwealth Fund, and the Trump administration's cuts to the federal bureaucracy have reportedly included maternal health programs.
- And a recent study found pregnancy-related death rates have actually been increasing, although rates are highly variable across states and demographics.
- American Indian and Alaska Native women have a pregnancy-related death rate nearly four times higher than that of white women, and Black women's rate is nearly three times higher, per the study, which was published in JAMA Network Open.
The bottom line: Incentivizing women to have more children and making it safer to do so are not the same thing.
