How Trump Offended Women With 'Baby Bonus' For A 'Baby Boom' Policy

The Trump administration's push for pronatalist policies has given rise to women having strong thoughts against it mostly because of economic, social and personal reasons. At the heart of this movement is the desire to reverse the country's declining birthrate through policies like cash "baby bonuses" and government-funded fertility education programs. However, per a report by the Guardian, women argue that these efforts are contradictory to the administration's actions, which reduce access to basic reproductive healthcare.

Savannah Downing, a 24-year-old Texan actor and content creator, expressed skepticism about the proposed $5,000 "baby bonuses." "Maybe people will want to have children more often if we weren't struggling to find jobs, struggling to pay our student loans, struggling to pay for food," she said. "Five thousand dollars doesn't even begin to even cover childcare for one month. It just seems really ridiculous."

Trump officials have always spoken in favour of making America procreate again. JD Vance, in his first address as the vice-president, said, “I want more babies in the United States of America.”

However, raising a child in the US is incredibly expensive. A middle-class family with dual incomes can expect to spend between $285,000 and $311,000 raising a child, not including college tuition, per a 2022 analysis by the Brookings Institute. Childcare costs alone can reach up to $70,000 annually for some families. Moreover, just giving birth in the United States is more expensive than any other country in the world. A simple uncomplicated birth covered by private insurance tends to cost about $3000, according to Abigail Leonard's new book Four Mothers.

Many women shared their thoughts with the Guardian, highlighting the inadequacy of the proposed policies. One stay-at-home mother of four said, "Five thousand? That doesn't go very far! It costs 200, 300 bucks just to buy a car seat for these kids. I just feel like it's really just insulting. If you want people to have more kids, make housing more affordable. Make food more affordable." Paige Connell, a working mom of four, emphasised the need for practical support: "They want to incentivise people to have children. I don't think they have a real stake in helping people raise them."

Countries like Hungary have invested heavily in boosting birth rates, about 5% of its GDP, and exempting women who have four children from paying taxes, but their efforts have not yielded desired results. Hungary's birth rate remains below the replacement rate of 2.1, hovering at 1.6. Similarly, Scandinavian countries with comprehensive government programs to support families have not seen significant increases in birth rates, and in the case of Sweden, dropped even further.

Per a 2024 Pew survey, adults under 50 who say they are unlikely to have children, have either of these two reasons: “concerns about the state of the world” or because they “can't afford to raise a child”.

Republicans are exploring ways to make more parents stay at home with their children, such as through policies that expand the child tax credit from $2,000 to $5,000. On the other hand, they have also proposed to slash Medicaid, a proposal that would hinder the pronatalism cause, since Medicaid pays for 40% of all US births.

There are potential racist and eugenic undertones, coupled with authoritarian governments of the pronatalist movement, which seems to prioritise white couples having more babies. Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union were known to give out medals to women who had many children. 

Downing feels that the movement is focused on pushing white women to have babies: "Women are realising that they're more than just birthing machines."