Inside the White House Plan to Make America Make Babies Again

The men who surround President Trump these days sure have a lot of kids. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has nine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has seven. And Elon Musk has…well, who’s to say really? Trump himself is the father of five, and while Vice President JD Vance has a fairly standard three, his distaste for “childless cat ladies” is by now, well-documented.

Now, Trump and his pronatalist posse are reportedly weighing a series of actions to boost the US birthrate. According to The New York Times, Trump administration officials have been meeting with activists and conservative groups to discuss proposals designed to spur a baby boom, including offering $5,000 “baby bonuses” to new parents.

If that sounds like an oddly progressive policy for this administration, it’s not: The bonuses—which the Times reported could take the form of a child tax credit and would require an act of Congress—would only apply to parents who are married, a staggeringly unequal benefit considering single parents are more likely to be Black and Hispanic.

“Our ultimate goal is not just more babies but more families formed,” Emma Waters, a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation told the Times. Heritage, which is among the groups conferring with the administration on this issue, is also proposing more research funding on “natural fertility” to encourage women to chart their menstrual cycles to get pregnant.

Another pronatalist activist, Simone Collins, told the Times she has sent draft executive orders to the White House proposing, among other things, a National Medal of Motherhood for mothers with more than six children.

All of this is a response to the fact that fertility rates in the US have been falling precipitously, dropping to a historic low, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But the White House’s apparent interest in more prolific procreation is undercut entirely by the decimation of women’s health initiatives under Trump’s watch. As the Times notes, the CDC recently shuttered its Division of Reproductive Health, which focused on maternal health. This, following years of increases to maternal mortality rates in America.

At the same time, health agencies have reportedly been warned off of funding research that so much as mentions the word “women” in light of the president’s diversity, equity, and inclusion purge. This has caused deep cuts to research into women’s health issues, even for conditions as uncontroversial as uterine fibroids.

Now, the Trump administration expects women to repopulate the country while the country delivers nothing in return—well, nothing except maybe a pretty medal. Ladies, you’re welcome.