Motherhood Medals Won’t Save America – But Care Policy Might

Why Trump’s baby boom agenda is widening the care gap for women and families

They want more babies. I want families to survive.

They want medals for motherhood. I want paid leave, affordable childcare, and maternal health programs that aren’t gutted overnight.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration unveiled its latest set of proposals: , menstrual cycle tracking classes for women, and even a “National Medal of Motherhood” for anyone who has six or more children.

As a mother of four, I can tell you this: no amount of ovulation education, wastewater testing for abortion medication, or patriotic pandering can substitute for real care policies. You don’t inspire a baby boom with slogans. You build one with systems.

Right now, we’re watching a government that says it wants to uplift families while actively making it harder for them to exist.

While the administration talks about honoring mothers, it is simultaneously gutting the very policies that protect them, cutting maternal health programs, slashing reproductive data infrastructure, and resuming wage garnishments that hit working women the hardest.

This isn’t family policy.

This is pageantry.

And it’s widening the care gap for women and families across America.

The birthrate in America is falling. And instead of asking why, leaders are trying to manipulate how.

Here’s what they’re missing: families aren’t choosing to have fewer children because they’re lazy, selfish, or too educated. They’re choosing to have fewer children because the cost of caregiving has never been higher, and the support has never been lower.

• The average cost of childcare? Up to $20,000 a year per child.

• The number of states with paid parental leave for all workers? Zero.

• The percentage of low-wage workers who have access to paid leave? Six. Percent.

This isn’t a moral failure. This is a policy failure.

Women aren’t rejecting motherhood—they’re rejecting burnout.

Fathers aren’t detached—they’re drowning in work hours, student debt, and housing costs.

Families aren’t asking for medals. They’re asking for relief.

Cutting Fertility and Maternal Health Programs—While Preaching Pronatalism

In the same breath that Trump officials promise a “baby boom,” they are dismantling the very agencies tasked with safeguarding reproductive health.

🧨 Earlier this month:

• The CDC laid off entire teams working on fertility tracking, maternal health surveillance, and IVF safety.

• The Department of Health and Human Services folded key maternal mental health programs into a new bureaucracy—leaving advocates worried about what’s next.

• The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), a 38-year-old national program that collects critical maternal health data, is being shut down.

Without the data, we can’t even measure if there’s a problem. – Former CDC staffer

This is not reform. It’s sabotage.

You can’t claim to care about fertility while eliminating the infrastructure that ensures safe births, successful treatments, and healthy recoveries. And when data disappears, so do the people behind it—Black women, poor women, single mothers, working families.

IVF Access for Show—But No Substance

Trump calls himself “the fertilization president.”

Yet IVF costs remain $25,000 per cycle, and insurance rarely covers it.

Instead of real investment, we’re getting proposals to expand “natural fertility” classes based on religious ideology. This ignores the millions of women facing PCOS, fibroids, endometriosis, and unexplained infertility—not with judgment, but with complex medical needs that deserve care, not shame.

This is not about babies. This is about control.

Control over how we become mothers. Control over when and whether we do at all.

This isn’t a plan to help women conceive—it’s a plan to control their choices.

Then There’s the Money—And the Wage Garnishments

In May, the Department of Education will resume wage garnishment for millions of people with student loan debt. Up to 15% of wages will be seized from anyone in default.

That includes women who dropped out of school to raise children.

Mothers returning to work with gaps in employment.

Caregivers who’ve done the unpaid labor no one tracks—but everyone benefits from.

You can’t call yourself pro-family while taking money from the paychecks of struggling moms. That’s not policy. That’s punishment.

This Isn’t Just Hypocrisy. It’s Policy Violence.

The push for a baby boom is not neutral. It privileges a narrow definition of family one that centers marriage between a man and a woman, excludes non-traditional households, and devalues caregiving work unless it results in births.

Meanwhile, families of all kinds single moms, same-sex couples, low-income workers are being asked to do more with less.

And let’s be honest: you can’t legislate a higher birthrate.

But you can legislate the support structures that make people feel safe enough to raise children.

This Isn’t Just Bad for Families. It’s Bad for Business.

Let’s talk about what this means for companies.

• Employees without childcare are more likely to miss work, burn out, or leave entirely.

• Lack of paid leave leads to lower retention, especially for women.

• Poor maternal and reproductive health outcomes result in higher healthcare costs, more absenteeism, and reduced productivity.

You can’t build a thriving workforce while forcing families to choose between income and care. And let’s be clear: there is no economic growth without care. Every thriving economy is held up by caregiving—paid or unpaid, visible or invisible.

So when corporations stay silent on these issues, they’re not just avoiding politics. They’re ignoring their future.

What Real Family Policy Looks Like

If we’re serious about reversing population decline or making life easier for families, we need systemic solutions, not symbolic gestures.

💡 Here’s what works:

• Universal childcare access with subsidies that make care affordable

• National paid family leave for all workers

• Flexible, care-aware workplaces with caregiver protections

• Fully funded maternal and reproductive health programs

• Expanded IVF access, with insurance mandates and oversight

• Investments in the care economy, treating it as infrastructure, not charity

You don’t get a baby boom with medals. You get one with maternity leave, midwives, and money.

This administration is not building a care agenda. It is building a culture war.

It’s not pro-family. It’s pro-natalist.

It’s not about helping parents—it’s about regulating women.

Motherhood medals won’t save us.

But care policy might.

Until we treat care as essential—just like roads, electricity, and clean water—this country will remain stuck in a cycle of burnout, blame, and broken promises.

And the next generation? They’ll be watching. Or worse, they won’t be here at all.

---

Blessing Adesiyan is the Editor-In-Chief of The Care Gap, Founder & CEO of Caring Africa and, a global leader at the intersection of care, business, and economic development. She is pioneering solutions that close the care gap, unlock women’s economic power, and transform how families and workplaces function.