Latest news with #pronatalism
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
You say we need more babies, rightwingers? Come back to me after you've fought in the trenches of soft play
I absolutely cannot fathom the number of populist rightwing politicians and commentators who have looked at the smouldering mess that is the world currently and thought: 'I know what this situation demands – more toddlers.' Population-boosting discourse and policies have spread across Europe (Hungary, Poland, Greece, Italy and beyond), while in the US an unholy coalition of tech bros, religious conservatives, blowhard podcasters and the politicians who pander to them have gone loudly pronatalist. JD Vance used his first speech as vice-president to proclaim: 'I want more babies in the United States of America'; Elon Musk called declining birthrates 'a much bigger risk to civilisation than global warming'; and Trump is considering various procreation-incentivising policies, including a $5,000 'baby bonus', which I believe is what a carton of eggs – hen, not human – costs in the US these days. Now Nigel Farage has hopped on the breeding bandwagon (tick that off your 'What fresh hell?' bingo card). Reform, he says, wants to go 'much further to encourage people to have children'. I needed to do something other than grind my teeth to stumps about this, so I've been brainstorming an entrance test for the role of publicly boring on about birth rates. Because having numerous children yourself (Vance lets the side down with a mere three; Musk tops the leaderboard with 14) doesn't qualify you to harangue others to do the same; you need to have actually walked the multiple-children walk – done the stuff parents without a flotilla of staff or a tradwife spouse have to do. Here are a few suggested 'canon' events politicians should experience before they're allowed to pontificate about our patriotic duty to breed. Your internal organs either feel like, or actually are, falling out; you can't sit down or lift anything safely (not sure how we simulate this for the bros, but it's 2025 – technology can surely assist). Unfortunately, the writhing newborn with its gums clamped to your nipple hasn't got the memo, and who's this erupting into the room, exuding the on-the-brink energy of someone whose world recently imploded? It's 12kg of inexplicably naked toddler barrelling towards a plug socket while intimating an urgent need to urinate, an open bottle of Calpol (where did they get that?) casually slung in one hand. Your move – oh, hang on, you can't move. Just regular, awful bedtimes: different, elaborate, multi-phase sleep rituals more complex than a Korean skincare regime for each child. A colicky baby. A toddler who fights sleep with the raw power of a heavyweight boxer. A child who waits until 11pm when you're on your very last nerve to ask the big questions about death. Standard stuff. You're hungover, sick or sleep-deprived (joke – you're always sleep-deprived) and desperate to crawl into a dark hole, but no, it's 9am, everyone's been up for four hours and you're in an echoing hangar with lighting, music and general ambience inspired by Guantánamo, having paid £10 per person for the privilege. One kid is attached to your leg, refusing to have fun without you; one has vanished entirely; another is headed straight into the ball pit, where they promptly have a screaming nervous breakdown. You'll need to retrieve them, knowing there's at least one rogue poo in there somewhere (worst lucky dip ever). How bad can it be, you say to yourself? Then the sweating and the flashbacks start. It's worse than 'Nam in Clarks and there's no way out but through. The cottage has vertiginously slippery stairs and surfaces full of low-hanging fragile knick-knacks, plus inadequate curtains, so everyone wakes at 4am. With no Freeview or phone reception, you can't outsource the early shift to Bluey. The intersection of allergy, intolerance and awkwardness is such that there is no food everyone will eat. It's day one and you're already praying for the sweet release of death. Guts in violent turmoil, you're physically unable to move more than a metre from your lavatory while being repeatedly called upon to clean up – probably even catch in your cupped hands! – your sick children's effluvia. Tell me again how more kids are the answer to the world's ills? Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist
RNZ News
7 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Feature interview: The issues with Pronatalism
life and society about 1 hour ago "Start procreating or start panicking." That's the core message of a once-fringe ideology now pushing its way into the mainstream called pronatalism. Elon Musk is one of the movement's loudest voices, boasting 14 kids and calling population decline humanity's biggest threat. The pronatalist movement is largely led by white conservatives and tech elites. Critics say it's not just about babies it's about power, and control. Dr. Karen Guzzo is a sociologist, fertility expert and the director of the Carolina Population Center. She argues that solving the "birth rate crisis" isn't about pushing people to have more kids, it's about building a society where they actually can.
Washington Post
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The pronatalist party escalates its war on children
The party of pronatalism and motherhood medals has just escalated its war on children. The GOP's budget bill slashes the safety net to fund regressive tax cuts. That much you might already know. But this is not a mere transfer of wealth from poor to rich; in many ways, it's also a transfer of wealth from young to old. That is, many of the 'pay-fors' in this bill disproportionately hurt babies and children.
Washington Post
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Having more babies isn't the only answer
The United States is at risk of a 'baby bust,' and the government is scrambling to reverse it. President Donald Trump recently proposed a suite of initiatives to encourage women to have more children, from a $5,000 'baby bonus' to a 'motherhood medal of honor.' But if other developed nations with declining birth rates are any example, simply throwing money at young couples — or even fortifying social welfare — isn't incentive enough. On the latest episode of 'Impromptu,' Post Opinions writers Drew Goins, Molly Roberts and Bina Venkataraman discuss the pronatalism debate and alternative strategies for boosting birth rates. The excerpt below has been edited for length and clarity.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The fertility crisis: can Trump make America breed again?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. 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.
