For literally decades, we at PRI have warned that the U.S.–and most of the rest of the world–is hurtling headlong into a bleak demographic winter. America’s total fertility rate has been below the critical replacement rate of 2.1 children for fifty years, with the exception of 2007 and 2008, and since then it has continued to fall.
The good news is that the Trump administration is not only aware of this long-running crisis, but is committed to taking positive steps to boosting the birth rate.
One such step occurred on Mother’s Day, when President Trump personally launched Moms.gov, a new website designed to connect mothers with practical resources and support.
The launch was followed by a White House Maternal Healthcare Event on May 11, where administration officials discussed America’s fertility crisis and the steps they are taking to help Americans make more babies.
The first step to solving a problem is to admit that you have one. And Dr. Mehmet Oz did just that by dramatically announcing that 1-in-3 Americans are “under-babied.” By this he meant, as he explained, that they have fewer children than they had hoped to have or no children at all.
A number of other senior Trump officials then weighed in to explain the concrete steps that the administration is taking to reverse this decline. They explained that the administration is strengthening maternity care in two ways.
First, the website Moms.gov, launched the previous day, will give women easy online access to a whole host of resources, along these directions to the nearest in-person facility where they can receive prenatal care. Early prenatal care will contribute to successful, stress-free pregnancies.
Second, funding for rural healthcare is being increased to ensure that moms in less populated areas have access to prenatal care. The problem of “maternity care deserts,” which PRI addressed in January, is very real. In some areas, expectant mothers have to drive hours to obtain prenatal and obstetric care. The increased funding will enable rural hospitals to maintain vitally necessary maternity wards.
Another pro-natal initiative announced at the event by administration officials is a steep reduction in the cost of fertility treatments. This will include many medications and therapies that can improve fertility by addressing ovulatory dysfunction, hormonal imbalances, insulin resistance, and other underlying health conditions. While initiative also includes In Vitro Fertilization, which involves the creation and destruction of embryonic human life, it is important to remember that there are a broad range of licit fertility treatments as well.
In fact, Trump has expressed support for identifying and correcting the root causes of infertility that often lead couples to pursue IVF in the first place. During the event, RFK Jr. shared that Trump has commissioned the Department of Health and Human Services to carry out a broad-ranging study into the underlying causes of infertility. This will include the role of endocrine disruptors, metabolic factors, and other factors that are pushing fertility downwards.
This is exactly the kind of effort that we at PRI have been calling for. After RFK Jr.’s appointment, for example, we published “How hidden chemicals in food contribute to our fertility crisis.”
In an America where one in six couples is incapable of conceiving a baby, an investigation into the root causes of our present infertility crisis is sorely needed. As we address the underlying environmental and dietary issues behind our falling birth rate, couples will be able to conceive naturally and have safe pregnancies and healthy babies. IVF will disappear.
The overall tone of the event was very positive. The takeaway is that we have a president who wants more American moms to be able to have “more beautiful American babies.” This is a goal that we at PRI wholeheartedly share.
We currently have in office the most pro-life, pro-family, and pro-fertility administration in U.S. history.
And the contrast with previous administrations, going all the way back to Bill Clinton, who were committed to funding the sterilization, contraception, and abortion of as many Americans as possible, could not be more striking.
Now that the President is fully committed a depopulation crisis, his next step should be to sign our Executive Order getting overpopulation propaganda out of the U.S. school system, and discard U.S. policies founded on the long outdated view that we are overpopulated, when we know our current crisis is quite the opposite. It’s time to teach our youngest generations the truth. We need more people, not less.
Sign our petition today to get this Executive Order in front of President Trump!
