Today's Women of Age

Lately there has been a hue and cry over the falling birth rate here in the U.S. which currently stands below the replacement rate. Conservatives in particular are banging the drum. Yes, they want more babies (ideally white babies) but their “solutions” to the declining birth rate are all horrifically wrong.

Let’s start with the Heritage Foundation and its infamous Project 2025 document which identified the “birth rate problem” as one of women having access to 1) birth control, 2) higher education and 3) jobs. Their solution is to take all that away from women or at least restrict it.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade was the start allowing states to determine when and if abortions would remain legal within their borders. Some contraceptive methods are also under attack as well. (Fun fact, abortion rates fell 50% from 1980 to 2017 largely due to increased access to contraception.)

On the higher education front, they have a challenge. College enrollment nationwide stands at 57% female to 43% male. Even at the doctoral degree level overall it’s 53% female, though it varies greatly between programs. So another way to address that pesky female higher-education problem is with Christian conservative propaganda at the high school and college level. In 2025 Charlie Kirk counseled high school girls to go to college, but to find a husband and ultimately start a family, not a career. At a 2026 CPAC convention, a female speaker admonished folks to marry young and start a family right away, even if you don’t want to or can afford to. There are a plethora of trad-wife influencers showcasing a romanticized version of the stay-at-home mom life even though they are not living it. Add in the mix pastors who are thumping their bibles saying that women need to get out of the workplace and back to the home as God ordained.

On the job front, the Trump administration’s war against DEI programs is meant in part to roll back workplace equality and make it harder for women to both get jobs and feel safe in them.

But let’s step back. Here’s the reality. Yes women are, for obvious reasons, key to the falling birth rate. They are choosing not to marry as young or have children right away, if at all. They are enjoying the satisfactions of a career and financial independence and making their own decisions. It is not some master plan to disrupt the world. They are just trying to live their best lives as men have done for centuries. But instead they are labeled selfish feminists, anti-family and demonized for not wanting to live the narrow, restricted life conservatives deem appropriate for females. (Typically one where the husband controls the money and decisions.)

But even for women who want to have a baby right now, the increasing high cost of living including astronomical medical care and the overall instability of life is a determent. And frankly for women in red states that have all but criminalized abortion, pregnancy carries an extra worry. If you have a problem pregnancy that threatens your life, you may be denied the life-saving treatment you need. Pregnant women have literally died in hospital parking lots.

So, in a nutshell, here’s the Heritage Foundation/Christian Nationalist/Conservatives solution to the U.S. falling birth rate: Let’s strip away as many women’s rights as we can so they have fewer options in life. Let’s get more women back under male control.

No addressing wealth inequality or tackling universal health care or creating jobs or lowering costs or any of the myriad of things that would actually help so many people survive, and would make it more affordable to have children. Instead they attack women. Instead of looking at providing more family support services, like free preschool and paid parental leave, they have cut back necessary programs like SNAP and Medicaid. Vice President JD Vance’s brilliant solution to prohibitive childcare costs for working parents is to enlist grandparents and other older relatives to pitch in, which obviously for many couples is not an option.

I am grateful that for the most part, I am beyond the clutches of their “solutions.” My womb is done baby making. My decades-long careers, both in high-tech and the non-profit sector, are behind me. I got my college degrees ages ago. I live in a community property state and my name is also on our properties and vehicles. I have my own bank accounts. But I lament that younger women are seeing their rights challenged and in some cases stripped away.

Conservatives say they want babies, but offer no support. No real solutions to help families. Their family orientation and baby lust is a thin veneer to gain more power and control. To keep patriarchy alive and abolish female empowerment. It is nothing short of evil.