1 week Ago By USA TODAY
America's birthrate has plummeted, and pronatalists − both in and outside the White House − are determined to fix it. But how? President Donald Trump and his administration have reportedly begun wading through various policy proposals aimed at reversing America's declining birthrate. Per the New York Times , some ideas that have been floated include scholarships for married people and parents, a one-time $5,000 cash "baby bonuses" for mothers and government-funded education on menstruation and ovulation .
One pronatalist activist also sent in a proposal that mothers of six or more receive a “National Medal of Motherhood." When asked on April 22 if he would consider giving American mothers "some kind of bonus" when they have a child, the president told reporters it "sounds like a good idea to me," before quickly jumping to another question. Some parents, want-to-be parents and even prominent pronatalists, however, argue these efforts are not enough.
Many say the reason they're not having kids is simple: They can't afford to. And the government's reported fixes, they say, miss the point − that things like surging home prices, expensive healthcare and a lack of paid parental leave are what really need addressing. "'We're not having children!' Yeah, maybe because when our parents were growing up rent and things were cheap," one TikToker says in a video with over 600,000 views .
"We're not going to talk about health insurance. We're not going to talk about car insurance. .
.. I don't know how people my age are even having kids.
" Trump's pronatalism agenda and why people say they aren't having children Following the New York Times' article, some young people mocked the White House's reported proposals. In a video with over 300,000 views , a pair of parents expressed their shock at some of the suggestions. "Obviously no women were involved in this council that's coming up with these ideas," a man says in the video, as his wife reads him some of the proposals and they react to each one.
She laments, "You know, not like free health care or, I don't know, paid maternity leave." Some argued the suggestions show politicians don't understand just how expensive it is to live, let alone raise a family, in the United States. "When it comes to the healthcare situation in our country, $5,000 is an insulting drop in the bucket," one TikToker says in a video with over 180,000 views.
"They're going to have to do better than that. ..
. The longer this birthrate crisis goes on, the better incentives they will have to provide." If you want to be serious about getting more people to have kids, a TikToker says in another video , try offering "year-long paternity and maternity leave" to do so.
"If you want to increase the birthrate, you would invest in social programs that would make it easier for parents to parent − not offer a measly $5,000, some medals and a class to teach women on how their periods period," the TikToker continues. Jennifer Sciubba , a demographer and the author of the book "8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World," previously told USA TODAY the reasons for America's declining birthrate − which has been dropping off since 2007 − are vast and complex. For starters, Sciubba said, more people feel they simply can't afford to have families amid economic uncertainty and rising housing prices.
More couples are also delaying marriage, shortening their window to conceive naturally with their spouse. More people also don't see children as necessary to a fulfilling life. According to a 2024 Pew Research Center report , 57% of adults under 50 who say they're unlikely to ever have kids say it's because they just don't want to, 44% say they want to focus on other things and 38% cite concerns over the state of the world.
Plus 36% percent say they can't afford to raise a child. If the birthrate keeps declining, Sciubba said, institutions that rely on young people to support older people will suffer. These include Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
"It is a problem when, over time, you have lower birth rates," she explained. "There are not enough workers to pay into the system to support growing numbers of older people." What do pronatalists think the answer is? Pronatalists tell USA TODAY they believe people are having fewer kids due to economic and cultural forces.
Malcolm Collins , a prominent pronatalist whose wife Simone, another pronatalist, submitted the "National Medal of Motherhood" proposal, suspects most economic solutions to the birthrate crisis won't actually work − and the ones that might, he says, will probably cost the government a lot more than $5,000 per kid. "You probably can pay people to have kids, but the number that I heard is about $300,000 per kid," he says. "I believe that number, but I'm like, yeah, but that's never going to pass in the modern political system, so let's find ways to empower the people who already want to have a lot of kids.
" Lyman Stone, the director of the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies , a family policy think tank, says the biggest reason people are having fewer children is they're delaying marriage. Elon Musk, JD Vance and why ‘pronatalism’ is having a moment right now Some reasons for this delay, he says, are economic. After all, for young adults, nearly every major life milestone seems to now occur at a later age than it did for previous generations.
More people are staying in school longer. More are getting their first well-paying job later. More also buying homes later, if at all.
For many, Stone says, owning a home is a crucial step before marriage and family are on the table. Yet, it's one that feels increasingly out-of-reach for many Americans. "When people think about the transition to marriage, they're often thinking about it not just as getting married, but entering a life stage as a married couple," Stone says.
"For a lot of people, that means housing, or owning a house." Another reason more people are delaying marriage, Stone says, is because it's become more difficult for people to find compatible partners with whom they want to marry and have children. "Young men and young women are increasingly inhabiting just different cultural worlds, due to social media, smartphones, pornography, politics, any number of things," he says.
"Young men and young women are just increasingly very, very different from each other, and that makes it difficult for them to match and marry in compatible relationships." Contributing: Jonathan Limehouse This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump, Elon Musk and the people laughing at their pronatalism agenda.
