Democrats are slamming policy proposals the Trump administration is reportedly considering that aim to raise birth rates in the United States and encourage women to have children, arguing they should instead enact paid leave and expand the current child tax credit to better support mothers and families. 

The debates over family policy come as congressional Republicans hammer out a tax and spending cut bill that could significantly reduce funding for policies and programs focused on supporting women and families.

On Tuesday, the House Democratic Women’s Caucus sent a letter to Trump, shared first with The 19th, expressing their “outrage” that the White House is weighing policy proposals to raise birth rates while implementing sweeping cuts to federal employees and programs that focus on researching fertility and maternal health.

“We write not only as lawmakers, but also as women and mothers who have lived these struggles,” said the letter, signed by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, the caucus’ chair, and 38 other House Democratic women lawmakers. 

“Many of us have raised children while working full-time, struggled to find and afford child care, navigated high-risk pregnancies, and fought for paid leave and affordable health care,” the letter said. “If you are serious about supporting women and families, we urge you to rescind these proposals and invest in policies that actually meet the needs of women and working families.”

The New York Times reported last week that White House aides have fielded proposals aimed at increasing birth rates and encouraging women to have children. They’ve included reserving a portion of government-sponsored academic scholarships like the Fulbright, which is already selective, for married people and parents; giving a $5,000 “baby bonus” to new mothers; and allocating more government funding for menstrual cycle education and classes. In their letter, the Democratic Women’s Caucus members said “the reported proposals are not only ineffective and out of step with reality, but they also fail to seriously address the challenges of motherhood.”

Social conservatives and Trump have been engaged in a long-standing, if transactional, alliance to limit abortion and promote an ideal of a heterosexual nuclear family. In Trump’s first campaign for the presidency, he promised to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would vote to end a federal right to abortion.  

After the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022, ending federal abortion rights and sending decisions about it to the states, social conservative activists have turned their focus to limiting the availability of medication abortion and increasing birth rates. 

Trump has called himself “the fertilization president” and pledged to make in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment more affordable on the campaign trail, despite some anti-abortion groups’ opposition to IVF. So-called pronatalists, who believe that falling birth rates pose an existential threat to American society, have gotten the ear of the White House. One of the most visible pronatalists is billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and someone who has fathered over a dozen children and is also a prominent Trump ally. 

Trump has told reporters that he thought the baby bonus, which would have to be funded by an act of Congress, was “a good idea.” But Democrats and family policy advocates have panned the proposal as insufficient to support families given the high costs of raising a child. 

Republicans also generally oppose increasing spending on social programs. The United States remains one of the only wealthy nations without universal paid leave, and many parents struggle to afford child care. Republicans’ sprawling tax and spending cut agenda could bring cuts to programs including Medicaid, federal food assistance and Head Start, which provides early education services to low-income children. It’s unclear whether the bill will permanently increase the current child tax credit, which was temporarily expanded during the pandemic and has bipartisan support.  

“It is estimated parents spend over $20,000 in the first year of a baby’s life,” the letter said. “A $5,000 baby bonus could help families—but mothers deserve support to care for their families, not pressure to grow them.”

Prominent pronatalist advocates Simone and Malcolm Collins have also pitched the White House on bestowing a “National Medal of Motherhood” to women who have six or more children, The Times reported, drawing comparisons to similar medals given out to mothers of multiple children in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia under Joseph Stalin. The Democratic Women’s Caucus letter charged that the idea “is taken directly out of the playbook of authoritarian regimes designed to control women and restrict how families live — it’s appalling.” 

Instead, Democratic women said, the Trump administration should support establishing paid leave, making child care more affordable, investing in women’s health research and expanding the child tax credit. 

“We are committed to building a country where every woman and every family has the freedom —and the resources—to decide if, when, and how to grow their family,” the letter said. “Women are not mere vessels for childbirth as contemplated in The Handmaid’s Tale.”