The Nation / Joan Walsh: A Trump Baby Boom? A Baby Bust Is More Likely.

[Dennis Donovan]

The Nation / Joan Walsh - A Trump Baby Boom? A Baby Bust Is More Likely.

The New York Times credulously covers alleged administration plans to hike the US birthrate—as Trump slashes the safety net.

Joan Walsh
April 24, 2025

Bewildered by the sudden embrace of “pronatalism” by the right? Or by the multiple New York Times stories about it (four this week alone!) focused on the Trump administration’s promotion of women—married women, that is—having more babies?

You wouldn’t be if you read Project 2025, which opens with a pledge to “Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life.” Or particularly the chapter on its plans for the Department of Health and Human Services, which I covered here.

Many of us knew, or have learned over time, that the wing-nut agenda aimed to cut back and even eradicate abortion, medication abortion (they call it chemical abortion, the better to make it sound cruel and hurtful), and so-called “Plan B” contraception. The agenda’s author, zealot and former HHS counsel Roger Severino, was open about his belief that the federal government should cut all funding for birth control.

But few recognized the depth of Serverino’s devotion to what’s been called “natural family planning,” or in the olden days, the “rhythm method” (that’s what my mom and dad called it; they gave it up for condoms after their third child). That involves a woman tracking her ovulation cycle and, if she doesn’t want to become pregnant, having sex only on days when her eggs are hiding from the pesky sperm. (If she does want to become pregnant, knowing when she’s ovulating can help.)

/snip