By Robert Weiner and Charles Rutledge
It has long been commonplace to criticize Republicans for refusing to accept that being truly pro-life means not just supporting births, but also supporting children throughout their lives. However, the inverse is equally true: supporting children necessarily encourages births. While most progressives only intend their social policies to improve quality and equality of life for existing American families, they should take pride in the fact that these same policies also give people the confidence to have children.Why Talk About Birthrates
The question of how to halt declining birthrates has grown increasingly prominent since the Great Recession pushed the U.S. birthrate permanently below replacement level. Although the average person might not yet have a strong opinion on this issue, the Republican leadership certainly does. Donald Trump proudly calls himself the fertilizationpresident, and his likely political heirs are even more obsessed with Americans having babies.
Vice President JD Vance has repeatedly implied Americans without children dont care about the future of the country, while Elon Musk claims low birthrates are a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming. Similar sentiments are echoed across the Republican Party, from Governors like Ron DeSantis to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Republicans seem primed to make birthrates the next big topic of social debate alongside abortion and trans rights. If Democrats effectively speak to this issue, they can steal the thunder from an increasingly significant Republican talking point. If not, Democrats will spend the next few years being painted as the anti-child party.
Where Republicans Stumble
Before politicians try to convince young Americans to have more babies, they should ensure those potential parents can actually support children. According to a Pew Research poll, the most common reasons adults under 50 give for not wanting children are having time for hobbies and interests (80%), affording the things they want (79%), and saving for the future (75%). The latter two of these reasons are directly financial while the former is connected to the cost of services like daycare and after-school programs that free up time for parents.
Republican leadership understands that this issue is fundamentally financial, which is why their PR strategy pays lip service to the financial struggle of raising children. However, they are unwilling to actually support the progressive policies that help parents, resulting in strange occurrences such as JD Vance voicing strong support for expanding the child tax credit but failing to show up to vote when that very expansion was brought to the Senate floor.
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