What’s Behind the Trump Administration’s Push for More Children?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Trump White House is exploring ways to get Americans to have more children, including government funded menstrual cycle classes and a $5000 “baby bonus.” Reproductive health journalist Carter Sherman calls pronatalism “a key ideological plank in the bridge between tech bro rightwingers like [Elon] Musk and more traditional, religious conservatives.” We look at the rise of the U.S. pronatalist movement and what it means in practice for women and families. Guests: Faith Hill, staff writer, The Atlantic Carter Sherman, reproductive health and justice reporter, The Guardian; author of the upcoming book “The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over Its Future” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho LaPuerta, a health resort with 85 years of wellness experience,
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0:22.7	vegetables daily. Learn more at Ranchoer Tuerta.com. Support for forum comes from Broadway
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1:01.8	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
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1:08.7	From KQED.
1:26.9	From KQED in San Francisco. I'm Leslie McClurg in today for Mina Kim.
1:30.1	Coming up on forum, the Trump administration wants a baby boom.
1:34.6	It's backing ideas like a financial bonus for new moms, scholarships just for married parents,
1:40.6	even classes to teach women when they are fertile.
1:44.1	Supporters say the birth rate is too low and that without more babies, the economy could collapse.
1:49.6	Others say it's about reviving traditional family values.
1:53.3	The critics argue it's a narrow vision, one that uplifts straight married couples and leaves out single parents and queer families.
2:02.8	What does pronatalism mean for the future of American families? That's next step to this news. Welcome to Forum. This is Leslie
2:11.9	McClurg. I'm in today for Mina Kim. Happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I didn't become a mom until I was almost 40. I was just distracted, you know, prioritized work, travel. I waited for until the final moment. And now there's a growing movement that says people like me are part of the problem. If Americans don't start having kids earlier and a lot more of them,
2:35.4	we won't have enough workers to support the economy, care for the elderly, or to keep towns alive.
	...

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