The fertility crisis: can Trump make America breed again?
In 2021, J.D. Vance gave a speech in Virginia about the "civilisational crisis" of low birth rates. Praising Hungary's pro-natalist policies, he asked, "Why can't we do that here?" Now that Vance is vice-president, America may be about to try, said Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times.
Donald Trump, the self-styled "fertilisation president", has been soliciting ideas on how to get Americans to have more babies. Among the proposals floated are giving women a $5,000 bonus for every birth, lowering the cost of IVF treatments, and reserving 30% of Fulbright scholarships for married people or parents. One pronatalist adviser even suggested emulating Nazi Germany by establishing a "National Medal of Motherhood" for women with at least six children.
None of these ridiculous "benefits" would entice me to breed, said Robin Epley in The Sacramento Bee. But there are other ways to make motherhood more attractive. America could, for instance, join every other "industrialised nation" by mandating paid parental leave. It could make childcare more affordable: even the Department of Labour says that childcare is now "an almost prohibitive expense" for families.
And the government could make pregnancy safer. America's maternal mortality rate exceeds that of every other rich country; the figures are particularly bad for black mothers, who in certain states are 3.3 times more likely to die during pregnancy as their white counterparts.
Trump has for once stumbled on a worthy cause, said Mona Charen in the Chicago Sun-Times. But if his boorish administration adopts this agenda, it will turn it "rancid" by making it seem like a patriarchal Nazi-style obsession. This is a job for the Democrats, said Elliot Haspel in The New Republic. They can't just sit on the sidelines mocking conservatives and making "predictable references to 'The Handmaid's Tale'". They, too, need to tackle this problem, which threatens to sap the nation's dynamism.
There is a persistent gap in the US between the number of children that people say they want and the number they end up having. The birth rate among married couples has remained relatively stable, but the proportion of people getting hitched or cohabiting has dropped sharply. The Democrats must take up the family cause and make the "non-judgmental yet affirmative case for having children". The future of America may depend on it.
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As partisan redistricting battles flare, Maine constitutional officers weigh in
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Such ideas have also been floated by officials in New York, Maryland, and Illinois — whose governor has already waded into the redistricting battle by welcoming Texas Democrats who fled the state to block a vote on the Republican proposal. They've since returned. But, Republicans control more state legislatures than Democrats and Vice President JD Vance is touring those states to encourage more gerrymandering. Several, including Missouri, Florida and Indiana, are now considering redrawing their maps to counter the Democrats' countering. 'It should be a concern for all of us about what this means for the next time that the next majority is in power,' Frey said. 'I am hoping that I would have just as much concern if California would have been the first state to say that they were going to do this as I have about Texas saying that they're going to do this, even though it may be perfectly appropriate legally.' Redistricting procedures vary state by state but largely happen every ten years following new census data. Under the Maine Constitution, the state Legislature must establish a bipartisan advisory commission to draw its congressional and legislative districts every ten years. These maps are then sent to the Legislature for approval, though lawmakers aren't bound to those recommendations. Approval requires a two-thirds vote, and because neither party has held a supermajority in the last decade, this has typically required bipartisan support. The map is then subject to the governor's approval. Maine last went through this process in 2021. Mills did not respond to multiple requests for comment about whether she supports the actions other Democratic states are considering to redraw their maps in response to Texas Republicans' attempts. A spokesperson told the Portland Press Herald in early August that she was not considering any actions related to redistricting in Maine. 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