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Business Insider
28-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
JD Vance wants women to have more babies. Conservative pro-natalists say cheaper housing is key.
Proponents of boosting the declining US birth rate are targeting Americans' biggest expense: housing. They say what parents and would-be parents need are cheaper homes that would give their families the room and financial security to grow. A recent report by the Institute for Family Studies, a conservative think tank that pushes for policies to increase the birth rate, concluded that housing costs were the single biggest factor stopping Americans from having as many kids as they want. "Housing cost concerns are more influential on young adults' plans than childcare costs, work schedules, job stability, student debt, healthcare access, paid leave, desire for leisure time, personal health, or other care obligations," the report found. In IFS' survey of more than 8,000 Americans 18-54 years old, a quarter of respondents listed housing costs as a concern, while 30% cited the cost of childcare, and 26% said they wanted more leisure time. But housing costs had the largest effect of those three factors on family size. "Housing costs were unique in having a very large effect and being extremely common, so they explain the largest total amount of foreshortening of intentions," Lyman Stone, the director of IFS' Pronatalism Initiative and a co-author of the report, told Business Insider. The group has an ally in Vice President JD Vance, who's among the most prominent faces of the conservative push for more American babies. "Our people aren't having enough children to replace themselves. That should bother us," Vance said in 2019. In his first speech as vice president, he told March for Life gatherers, "I want more babies in the United States of America." Are housing costs affecting your family planning decisions? Reach out to this reporter at erelman@ Vance has been critical of subsidizing childcare and expanding parental leave; he favors policies designed to help parents who don't work outside the home. The vice president has also called for building new housing on federal land that would be sold or leased to private developers, and supports cutting red tape, including land-use regulations, that limit housing construction. He and his conservative allies could find common ground on housing with Democrats, who also believe the US needs to build many more homes to bring costs down. A White House spokesperson didn't respond to BI's request for comment. When it comes to housing, conservative pro-natalists have slightly different aims than the typical YIMBY agenda, which focuses on building more dense housing in high-demand urban and inner-ring suburban areas, often around transit hubs. Groups like IFS want to prioritize building more single-family homes, which Americans tend to prefer over multifamily housing. An overwhelming majority of IFS survey respondents — 79% — said they preferred to live in a detached, single-family home, while just 59% live in that kind of home. "There's that desire to give your kids a backyard and have space to spread out when it comes to having and raising a family," Brad Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia and the co-founder of IFS, told BI. Wilcox said IFS has had conversations with the Trump administration's Domestic Policy Council, and pointed to the administration's efforts to sell federal land for housing construction as a promising path forward. The group also wants to see a slew of policy changes at the local, state, and federal levels to juice housing construction, including relaxing land-use regulations and legalizing more construction in undeveloped areas. "For a lot of ordinary people, the most preferred and fruitful path to pursue here is to try to figure out ways to make affordable single-family housing more accessible to working middle-class Americans," Wilcox said. Replicating the baby boom The US birth rate has been largely on the decline since the financial crisis of 2008. While many factors influence the choice to have kids, government policy is well-positioned to address the economic drivers. There's evidence that rising housing costs shrink family size. A 10% increase in home prices led to a 1% decrease in births among non-homeowners, economists Lisa Dettling and Melissa Schettini Kearney found in a 2012 paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research. The researchers also found evidence from the distant past that easier access to homeownership can help boost birth rates. The advent of the modern, low-down-payment mortgage in the 1930s facilitated a sharp uptick in the US birth rate that helped create the baby boom, according to their February 2025 NBER working paper. The loans, backed by the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration, made it easier for some younger Americans to buy a home by allowing very low payments up front and 30 years to pay off the loans. (Black Americans were effectively excluded from these programs for years.) The researchers found that the two mortgage insurance programs helped lower the age people got married and had their first baby, and led to 3 million additional births between 1935 and 1957, accounting for about 10% of the spike in births associated with the baby boom. "Maybe how easy it is to have kids is less about can they take three months off work versus 'do I have a bedroom to put this kid in for the next 18 years?'" Schettini Kearney, an economist at the University of Maryland, recently told BI.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hillary Clinton blasts Vance, Musk for encouraging higher birthrates, says immigrants can do that instead
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk are pushing America to boost its birthrate to "return to being a Christian nation." On May 1, Clinton spoke at the Newmark Civic Life Series in Manhattan at the 92nd Street Y, New York. She argued that there is a "very blatant effort to basically send a message, most exemplified by Vance and Musk, and others, that, you know, what we really need from you women are more children… and what that really means is 'You should go back to doing what you were born to do, which is to produce more children.'" Musk, who has fathered 10 children with three women, has repeatedly voiced his concerns about the threat posed by a declining population, often advocating for policies that encourage childbearing. Vance also encouraged building families during his speech at the March for Life in January, declaring, "I want more babies in the United States of America. I want more happy children in our country, and I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them." Hillary Clinton Bashes Republican Women, Says Gop Female President Would Be 'Handmaiden To The Patriarchy' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday detailed a provision of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" that would codify "MAGA" savings accounts for new parents. Read On The Fox News App Clinton criticized various programs Republicans have proposed to boost the American birthrate, arguing such policies have failed elsewhere. At the same time, she argued that Republicans are gutting many programs that actually help new parents. "This is another performance about concerns they allegedly have for family life, but if you had read the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, despite Trump saying he knew nothing about it, if you had read it, it's all in there. It's all in there," the former first lady said in the interview. "'Return to the family, the nuclear family, return to being a Christian nation, return to producing a lot of children' — which is sort of odd because the people who produce the most children in our country are immigrants, and they want to deport them. So none of this adds up," she continued. Clinton also argued that immigrants, whether legal or illegal, have made the American economy exceptional by adding to the workforce, while other countries have struggled with demographic decline. "One of the reasons why our economy did so much better than comparable advanced economies across the world is because we actually had a replenishment, because we had a lot of immigrants, legally and undocumented, who had a, you know, larger than normal - by American standards - families," she said. Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture "So, this is just another one of their, you know, 'Make America Great Again' by returning to the lifestyles and the economic arrangements of not just the 1950s, I mean, let's keep going back as far as we can. And, you know, see what happens," Clinton added. This is the latest example of Clinton blasting pro-life Republicans as hypocritical on family article source: Hillary Clinton blasts Vance, Musk for encouraging higher birthrates, says immigrants can do that instead
Herald Malaysia
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Herald Malaysia
Pope Leo XIV embraces elements of Francis' vision; some views still unclear
Prior to his elevation to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV stayed out of the spotlight on certain reforms backed by his predecessor but maintained a close relationship with Pope Francis and support for pro-life values, the dignity of migrants, care for the environment, and a more synodal Catholic Church. May 15, 2025 A cropped version of the official portrait of Pope Leo XIV, published by the Vatican on May 10, 2025. | Credit: Vatican Media By Tyler Arnold Prior to his elevation to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV stayed out of the spotlight on certain reforms backed by his predecessor but maintained a close relationship with Pope Francis and support for pro-life values, the dignity of migrants, care for the environment, and a more synodal Catholic Church. Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, was appointed as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2015 and took on major leadership roles in the Vatican from 2023 through 2025: prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops, where he provided guidance on appointing bishops and cardinals; and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where he oversaw the Vatican's relations with the Church in the region. In the past, Leo has been critical of gender ideology, much like Francis. On issues related to homosexuality and same-sex blessings, Leo's tone was very critical before his appointment as a cardinal but has since appeared to soften. 'He has not been a bishop of a diocese or a cardinal in the Roman Curia for long,' Susan Hanssen, a history professor at the University of Dallas, a Catholic institution, told CNA. 'He is not a 'senior cardinal,'' she said. 'It was the choice of a relatively unknown figure.' Joe Heschmeyer, an apologist at Catholic Answers, told CNA that Leo's 'liturgical motto stresses the need for our unity in Christ, so I have a strong hunch that one of the goals of his pontificate will be to restore more of a sense of unity and order to the Church.' 'One of the things that seems immediately clear about the new Roman pontiff is that he speaks clearly and gently,' he said. 'Those are both crucial right now.' Promoting a culture of life Similar to Francis, Leo has been a consistent advocate for a culture of life. He has spoken out against abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty. Leo became involved in the pro-life movement before joining the priesthood and was active in 'Villanovans for Life,' the pro-life club at Villanova University, and has attended pro-life marches. He has also publicly spoken on the issue, including in social media posts. In 2015, while attending the March for Life in Chiclayo, the now-pontiff posted on X that people must 'defend human life at all times.' He also reshared several articles on X, including articles from CNA, about the sanctity of human life and opposition to abortion. During a 2022 interview with La Republica, then-Bishop Prevost said that being pro-life for the entirety of life means that 'the death penalty is inadmissible' and that seeking 'blood for blood' is not the proper answer when trying to bring about justice. Gender ideology and same-sex blessings Prior to his pontificate, Leo spoke out about gender ideology and homosexuality. While bishop of Chiclayo, the now-pontiff condemned the promotion of gender ideology in the public education system in Peru, according to the national Peruvian newspaper Diario Correo. 'It seeks to create genders that don't exist, since God created men and women, and trying to confuse the ideas of nature will only harm families and individuals,' then-Bishop Prevost said in 2016, according to the article. 'This campaign, apparently, is going to create a lot of confusion and do a lot of harm. We mustn't confuse the importance of family and marriage with what others want to create, as if it were a right to do something that isn't,' he said. In 2012, when Leo was the prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, he said that Western mass media promotes 'enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel; for example, abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia,' while speaking in an interview with Catholic News Service. Leo further criticized the negative media portrayal of members of the clergy who support 'the traditional definition of marriage' in the same interview. He criticized the positive portrayal of 'alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.' He spoke about the need for the Church to learn how to evangelize in this environment. However, after he became a cardinal in 2023, he told Catholic News Service: 'Pope Francis has made it very clear that he doesn't want people to be excluded simply on the basis of choices that they make, whether it be lifestyle, work, way to dress, or whatever.' He noted that 'doctrine hasn't we are looking to be more welcoming." After the Vatican authorized certain nonliturgical blessings of same-sex couples through the declaration Fiducia Supplicans , then-Cardinal Prevost said: 'Each episcopal conference needs to have a certain authority' in determining how to implement the document, according to CBCP News. Prevost noted some African bishops believed 'our cultural situation is such that the application of this document is just not going to work.' Leo was the prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops during the cardinal appointment of Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, who authored Fiducia Supplicans . Yet, Fernández was a longtime friend of Francis and it's unclear whether then-Archbishop Prevost had any role in his appointment. Christopher Malloy, the author of the book 'False Mercy' and chair of theology at the University of Dallas, told CNA he does not know what Leo 'will emphasize in his pontificate' but said the 'infallible teaching on the sexual act cannot change' and 'God does not change his truth,' which is in line with Leo's 2023 comments. 'The sexual act is ordained by God to be between one man and one woman who are married and who do not act against the end of the act, procreation,' Malloy said. 'Any use of the sexual faculties that violates this principle is objectively evil and therefore harms the very persons engaged in the act.' Continuity with Francis: synodality, immigration, environment Leo promoted the Church's Synod on Synodality in a 2023 interview with Vatican News. The synod brings bishops, priests, and laypeople together for conversations about how to approach certain issues in the Church. 'I truly believe that the Holy Spirit is very present in the Church at this time and is pushing us towards a renewal, and therefore we are called to the great responsibility of living what I call a new attitude,' then-Cardinal Prevost said. 'It is not just a process, it is not just changing some ways of doing things, maybe holding more meetings before making a decision.' On social media, Leo was outspoken in support of migrants and shared posts that criticized President Donald Trump's immigration policy. Three of his five posts on X this year were criticizing those policies, including one post sharing an America Magazine article on Francis' response to Vice President JD Vance on a Catholic approach to immigration. Leo also served on the board of directors for Caritas Peru from 2022–2024, which provides humanitarian assistance to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. It established a shelter for Venezuelan migrants in 2019. However, in a homily given in the Chicago area last August, then-Cardinal Prevost also acknowledged certain problems that come from mass migration. He spoke about a large number of migrants in the small Italian town of Lampedusa, calling it 'a huge problem,' and added: 'It's a problem worldwide, not only in this country.' 'There's got to be a way to both solve the problem but also to treat people with respect,' he said, adding that everyone is given 'the gift of being created in the image and likeness of God.' As a cardinal, Prevost also spoke about environmental concerns, stressing a need to move 'from words to actions,' according to a Vatican News article at the time. He said that 'dominion over nature' should not become 'tyrannical' but must be a 'relationship of reciprocity' with the environment. Speaking to CNA, Heschmeyer said: 'On issues like caring for the environment and immigrants, I think we can expect Pope Leo to sound a lot like Pope Francis (and the Catechism of the Catholic Church).' Some uncertainties remain The Holy Father may need to navigate other subjects that he has not publicly weighed in on at this time, including Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia , which opened the door to Communion for Catholics who have been divorced and remarried in limited circumstances. Additionally, Leo will be tasked with managing his predecessor's motu proprio Traditionis Custodes , which restricts access to the Traditional Latin Mass. 'While there have been some rumors that he celebrates the Latin Mass, they remain just that right now: rumors,' Heschmeyer said when asked whether there have been any indications on how Leo might handle those restrictions moving forward. 'What is clear is that he seems to have a traditional sensibility in terms of liturgy and vestments, and his Latin (as seen in his blessing from the balcony of St. Peter's and in his first Mass as pope) seems crisp and clear,' he added. Hanssen told CNA 'there are a lot of cross-currents flying around the infosphere' and said it's still unclear how Leo may handle certain topics of contention within the Church. 'Just as it was at the beginning of the Francis papacy, it is unclear how Leo XIV will position himself with regard to the John Paul II project of the re-evangelization of culture, what approach he would take to reinvigorating Christianity in secular, modern culture in first world countries, in the USA and Europe, because this has never been his primary field of pastoral work,' Hanssen said. Heschmeyer encouraged Catholics not to follow Leo's papacy by 'looking for faults' on issues of contention but to rather focus on what can be learned from the Holy Father. 'Spiritually, it's so much healthier if you try to figure out what you can learn from him and how his leadership can help your own spiritual journey,' he said.--CNA
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Give birth? In this economy? US women scoff at Trump's meager ‘baby bonuses'
In theory, Savannah Downing would love to be a mom. At 24, the Texan actor and content creator is nearing the age at which her mother had kids. Some of her friends are starting families. But having children in the United States is wildly expensive – and so when she saw the news that the Trump administration was considering giving out $5,000 'baby bonuses' to convince women to have kids, Downing was incensed. '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 made no secret of their desire to make America procreate again. In his very first address as vice-president, JD Vance said at the anti-abortion March for Life: 'I want more babies in the United States of America.' Weeks later, a Department of Transportation memo directed the agency to focus on projects that 'give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average'. Then, in late April, the New York Times reported that the administration was brainstorming policies to encourage people to get married and have kids, such as giving out those baby bonuses or awarding medals to women who have at least six children. Related: The rise of pronatalism: why Musk, Vance and the right want women to have more babies All of these moves are evidence of the growing power of the pronatalist movement within US politics. This movement, which has won adherents among both traditional 'family values' conservatives and tech-bro rightwingers such as Elon Musk, considers the falling US birthrate to be an existential threat to the country's future and thus holds that the US government should enact policies designed to incentivize people to give birth. But many of the women who are, in theory, the targets of the pronatalist pitch have just one response: Have babies? In this economy? After the New York Times report broke, social media exploded with indignation at the proposed policies' inadequacy. 'Go ahead and tell Uncle Sam what he needs to give you to make him Daddy Sam,' a woman rasped at the camera in one TikTok with nearly 1m likes. 'Universal – ?' she started to say, in a presumable reference to universal healthcare. 'No. No. Where did you even hear that?' 'Five thousand? That doesn't go very far!' one 24-year-old stay-at-home mother of four complained in another TikTok, as her children babbled in the background. '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.' [The Trump administration wants] to incentivize people to have children. I don't think they have a real stake in helping people raise them Paige Connell Although the cost of raising a child in the US varies greatly depending on factors such as geography, income level and family structure, a middle-class family with dual incomes can expect to spend somewhere between $285,000 and $311,000 raising a child born in 2015, a 2022 analysis by the Brookings Institute found. That analysis doesn't factor in the price of college tuition, which also varies but, as of last year, cost about $11,600 a year at an in-state, public university. The cost of merely giving birth is more expensive in the US than in almost any other country on the planet. An uncomplicated birth covered by private insurance. which is basically the best-case scenario for US parents, tends to cost about $3,000, according to Abigail Leonard's new book Four Mothers. Paige Connell, a 35-year-old working mom of four who regularly posts online about motherhood, had a long list of pro-family policies she would like to see adopted. For example: lowering the cost of childcare, which runs to about $70,000 a year for Connell's family. (An April Trump administration memo proposed eliminating Head Start, which helps low-income families obtain childcare, although the administration appears to have recently reversed course.) Or: preserving the Department of Education, as Connell has children in public school and some of them rely on specialized education plans. (Trump has signed an executive order aiming to dismantle the department, in an apparent attempt to get around the fact that only Congress can close federal departments.) 'They want to incentivize people to have children. I don't think they have a real stake in helping people raise them,' Connell said of the Trump administration. 'Many women that I know – women and men – do want more kids. They actually want to have more children. They simply can't afford it.' Lyman Stone, a demographer who in 2024 established the pronatalism initiative at the right-leaning Institute for Family Studies, argued in an interview last year that 'most of missing babies in our society are first and second births' – that is, that people avoid having a second child or having kids at all. Pronatalism, he said, should focus on helping those people decide otherwise. 'The misconception is this idea that pronatalism is about tradwives and giant families, when it's really about, on some level, helping the girl boss, like, girl boss in her family life a little bit earlier and harder,' Stone said. Some Americans may indeed be having fewer children than they would like. Among adults under 50 who say they are unlikely to have children, close to 40% say that they are not doing so due to 'concerns about the state of the world' or because they 'can't afford to raise a child', according to a 2024 Pew survey. A 2025 Harris poll for the Guardian found that the state of the economy has negatively affected 65% of Americans' plans to have a child. Women are realizing that they're more than just birthing machines Savannah Downing But to say that pronatalism is about helping the 'girl boss' have one or two kids is not quite accurate, given that several prominent pronatalists are deeply interested in producing 'giant families'. Malcolm and Simone Collins, who have become the avatars of the tech-right wing of pronatalism, have at least four children and show no signs of slowing down. (The Collinses were behind the medal idea reported by the Times; they called it a 'National Medal of Motherhood'.) Musk, perhaps the most famous pronatalist on the planet, reportedly runs something of a harem and is believed to have fathered 14 children. Republicans are also currently exploring policies that would entice more parents to stay at home with their children, the New York Times reported on Monday, such as expanding the child tax credit from $2,000 to $5,000. While these potential policies do not specify which parent would stay at home, four out of five stay-at-home parents are moms. However, this goal is seemingly at odds with Republicans' desire to slash the US budget by more than $1.5tn. Indeed, Republicans have proposed dramatically curtailing Medicaid – a proposal that would appear to hinder the pronatalism agenda, because Medicaid pays for more than 40% of all US births. Pronatalism has long been intertwined with racism, eugenics and authoritarian governments. Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union gave out medals to women who had large numbers of children, while in the United States, interest in pronatalism has historically surged in eras, such as the early 20th century, when women and immigrants were trying to participate more in public life. Today, fears about the consequences of the near record low US birthrate are often tied to concerns about the country's shrinking workforce. Immigration could help alleviate those concerns, but the Trump administration is deeply opposed to it. All this leads to a fundamental question: do pronatalists want everybody to have children – or just some types of people? 'What I've seen online of the pronatalist movement, it does seem very aligned with white supremacy, because it does seem like a lot of the conversation around it is more geared towards white couples having more babies,' said Madison Block, a product marketing manager and writer who lives in New York. She's also leery of the Trump administration's focus on autism, which could translate into ableism: 'A lot of the conversations around pronatalism, in addition to being borderline white supremacist, I think are also very ableist.' Now that she's 28, Block said that many of her friends were starting to get married and consider having babies. But Block is afraid to do so under the current administration. And when she thinks about potentially starting a family, affordable healthcare is non-negotiable. 'I personally wouldn't want to have kids unless I know for a fact that I am financially stable enough, that I can provide them with an even better childhood than what I have,' Block said. 'I think, for a lot of younger millennials and gen Z, a lot of us are not at that point yet.' Perhaps the ultimate irony of the Trump administration's pronatalist push is that it is not clear what pronatalist policies, if any, actually induce people into becoming parents. In past years, Hungary has poured 5% of its national GDP into boosting births, such as through exempting women who have four children or more children from paying taxes. This herculean effort has not worked: as of 2023, the country's birth rate has hovered at 1.6, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. (For a country to maintain its population, women must have about two children each.) More left-leaning countries, such as those in Scandinavia, have also embarked on extensive government programs to make it easier for women to have kids and maintain careers – yet their birth rates also remain lower than the replacement rate and, in the case of Sweden, even dropped. It may be the case that, when access to technologies like birth control give people more choices over when and how to have children, they may simply choose to have fewer children. In that 2024 Pew survey, nearly 60% of respondents said that they were unlikely to have kids because they 'just don't want to'. Downing is not that concerned about pronatalism taking root among the general public. Personally, she doesn't feel like there's too much governmental pressure on her to have kids, particularly since she is Black and much of the pronatalism movement seems focused on pushing white women to have babies. 'I feel like a lot of women are fed up. I think that's why the birth rate is going down,' she said. 'Women are realizing that they're more than just birthing machines.' But images from The Handmaid's Tale – the red capes, the white bonnets – haunt her. 'I think $5,000 and a medal trying to coax women into having more kids is a start,' she said, 'and I really am worried to see how far they will go to try to force women and have children'.
New York Post
08-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Pope Leo XIV in his own words: the pontiff on abortion, climate change, homosexuality, and capital punishment
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV is widely considered to be soft-spoken and cautious — but has not been shy in recent years about speaking out on hot-button issues, from the teaching of gender ideology in schools to climate change. Known as Robert Francis Prevost prior to his election Thursday as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the 69-year-old Chicago native's views on several controversial topics can be gleaned from past social media posts (and reposts), public remarks and interviews with media outlets. 3 Robert Francis Prevost, who was born in Chicago, will now be known as Pope Leo XIV. REUTERS Climate change Like his predecessor, Francis, Leo XIV is a strong believer that the faithful have a responsibility to take care of the planet. The then-president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops argued in November of last year that it is time to move 'from words to action' on the 'environmental crisis.' 'Dominion over nature' should not become 'tyrannical,' Prevost stressed, arguing that man's relationship with the environment must be a 'relationship of reciprocity,' according to Vatican News. Prevost further cautioned against the 'harmful' environmental impacts of technological development and highlighted the Vatican's installation of solar panels and use of electric vehicles. Gender ideology and homosexuality While Francis famously told reporters, 'Who am I to judge?' gay people and said homosexuals 'must be integrated into society,' Leo XIV may be less accommodating. In a 2012 address to bishops, Prevost accused the news media and popular culture for encouraging 'sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel,' according to the New York Times. Among those 'beliefs and practices' Prevost cited were the 'homosexual lifestyle' and 'alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.' 3 The new pope has previously criticized Western culture for promoting the 'homosexual lifestyle.' AP While bishop of Chiclayo in northwestern Peru, Prevost opposed a government initiative to promote gender ideology teachings in schools.' 'The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don't exist,' he told local news media at the time. Abortion On social media, Prevost has expressed strong support for the Catholic Church's anti-abortion stance. In 2015, Prevost posted a photograph from the March For Life rally in Chiclayo, exhorting his followers: 'Let's defend human life at all times!' Prevost also retweeted a 2017 Catholic News Agency article on New York Archbishop Timothy, Cardinal Dolan condemning abortion at a mass ahead of the March for Life rally in Washington, DC. In his homily, Dolan urged Catholics to 'reclaim the belief that the mother's womb is the primal sanctuary, where a helpless, innocent, fragile, tiny baby is safe, secure, nurtured and protected.' 3 'Let's defend human life at all times!' Prevost tweeted in 2015. AP Capital punishment Prevost has expressed opposition to capital punishment, reflecting the Catholic Church's position and Francis' commitment to see the practice ended worldwide. 'It's time to end the death penalty,' he wrote March 5, 2015, in an X post Euthanasia In 2016, Prevost reposted a Catholic News Agency article in which citizens of Belgium, where euthanasia is legal, urged Canadians not to support legislation that would allow for assisted suicides. ''Don't go there' – Belgians plead with Canada not to pass euthanasia law #Prolife,' read the tweet that Prevost shared. In the article, Belgian doctors, lawyers, and family members whose loved ones were euthanized argued that assisted suicide threatens the most vulnerable in society and compromises the doctor-patient relationship. Gun rights In October 2017, Prevost retweeted a call for new US gun control from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) after a gunman murdered 60 people in Las Vegas. 'To my colleagues: your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers. None of this ends unless we do something to stop it,' Murphy wrote in the tweet shared by the new pope.
