When the State Incentivizes Birth, but Not Care—We Should All Be Alarmed.
“Care is not a carrot. It’s a commitment. True democracy begins in the body—where autonomy is honored, not incentivized.” — Mary Coughlin
The U.S. birth rate is declining—and has been for years.
Sociologists point to a range of reasons: the cost of living, lack of paid parental leave, inadequate childcare, medical debt, climate anxiety, the erosion of trust in systems. Young people are making thoughtful, often heart-wrenching decisions about whether the world they're inheriting is one they want to bring new life into.
So when the sitting president proposes a $5,000 "baby bonus" for women who give birth, we must ask:
Is this support?
Or is it soft coercion, draped in patriotic rhetoric and reproductive control?
Because context matters.
This proposal doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It comes on the heels of:
Roe v. Wade being overturned.
Increasing surveillance and criminalization of miscarriage.
Rising maternal mortality, especially among Black and Indigenous women.
A powerful Christian nationalist movement advancing policies that equate womanhood with motherhood and patriotism with procreation.
Let’s be clear: Incentivizing births without addressing the structural trauma that deters people from having children is not care. It’s control.
And from a trauma-informed developmental care (TIDC) lens, it violates nearly every principle:
Safety: What safety is there in forced or incentivized reproduction amid collapsing healthcare and rising political extremism?
Transparency & Trust: Where is the trust when support is conditional and political motives remain obscured?
Empowerment, Voice & Choice: What does “choice” mean in a landscape where access to contraception and abortion is eroded?
Equity & Affirmation: Who gets this bonus? Who is left out? And whose bodies are being legislated into service?
Healthy Relationships & Interactions: Healthy development begins with dignity. Manipulating reproductive decisions for political ends fractures that foundation.
And let’s talk about democracy.
Because true democracy isn’t just about voting. It’s about bodily sovereignty.
It’s about the freedom to define your life on your terms—not the state’s.
It’s about trusting the people, not managing them like a production line of future laborers and soldiers.
This $5,000 bonus may be framed as a benefit. But it feels more like a bargain.
A transaction offered in place of transformation.
And it signals something deeply dystopian: a vision of society where people are praised for producing life but not supported in living it. (Think along the lines of Handmaid's Tale)
We don’t need cash carrots. We need systems that nourish life—before, during, and after birth.
We need to REIMAGINE care not as currency but as connection.
Not as bonus, but as birthright.
Because care is the cornerstone of democracy.
And coercion—no matter how prettily packaged—has no place in a trauma-informed world.
In solidarity and defiance,
Mary
P.S. If this post stirred something in you, don’t let it fade.
💥 Share it. Speak on it.
🗳️ Organize. Mobilize. Vote. REIMAGINE
👥 Join us this May Day as we gather voices rising for autonomy, equity, and care that heals rather than harms.
Because democracy begins with the body—and your voice is part of the revolution.
