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A $5,000 “baby bonus” is one of several proposals the White House is considering amid declining birth rates in the U.S., according to multiple outlets, as it looks to incentivize Americans to have more children.
Trump and Vance encouraged voters to have more children during the election cycle, with Trump telling supporters in 2023, “We will support baby booms and we will support baby bonuses for a new baby boom,” the Times reported. Trump has largely positioned himself against abortion and sought to lower the cost of in vitro fertilization, or IVF.
The U.S. fertility rate dropped to a historic low in 2023, with 3,591,328 births recorded that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Birth rates specifically declined for women ages 20 to 39 as rising health costs, economic concerns and child-bearing postponements have impacted the fertility rate, according to Time, which cited research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
You know what would encourage people to have kids? Universal healthcare, 1+ year paid maternity leave, affordable daycare, affordable housing, better salaries, etc.
Those of you who voted for Trump, what do you all think of this idea?
It is hard to say because I am not a mother, let alone a single mother, but I think any financial support for them is not a bad idea at all. I've watched my own sisters and many women really struggle financially through single motherhood.
I know Iceland gives monthly allowances to single moms of two due to their extremely low population (therefore low birth rates and options). The moms I saw there when I visited like 10 years ago looked like they were doing so well. I mean they looked very "pampered." The ongoing joke around the country was something like, "You'll never see anybody doing better in Iceland than a single mother." I have an image burned into my brain of seeing two women with their babies in strollers decked to the nines and well taken care of on some island in the southeast.
I'm not sure of a great answer here, because our histories and cultural differences do not necessarily mean one thing that works there would work here and vice versa, but I do think single mothers deserve more support!