Aside from the fact that it was issued a full two weeks after the much-anticipated Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, what was most striking about President Joe Biden’s executive order “Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services” was what was not in it.
To be specific, there was nothing in Biden’s order to help mothers who want to keep their unborn children.
Apparently, the only “Reproductive Health Services” that the Democratic Party cares about are services that end with people not reproducing. For families that are actually interested in surviving into the next generation, the Democratic Party has made clear it is not interested in the future.
The fall of Roe has given the Republican Party a remarkable chance to cement itself as the party of the next generation — as the Parent Party. There are many good conservative policy ideas out there that can reform government so it better promotes strong, stable families. More Republicans just need to embrace them.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), for example, released a Family Security Act just last month, co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Steve Daines (R-MT). This legislation creates new benefits, $350 a month for each young child and $250 a month for each school-aged child, to help support families. Mothers could start drawing checks as soon as they know they are pregnant.
The plan is paid for by consolidating four separate existing tax benefits (the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, the child and dependent care tax credit, and the head of household filing status) into one program. Taxpayers and communities are additionally protected by a $10,000 work requirement before the full benefit phases in.
Most importantly, the plan eliminates the existing marriage penalties in the EITC and CTC programs. By eliminating these existing marriage penalties in the tax code, the plan ensures more children will be raised in stable, two-parent households.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has a separate parental leave plan that also incentivizes marriage, helps working families, and is fiscally paid for. Under Rubio’s plan, co-sponsored by Reps. Ann Wagner (R-MO) and Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), parents could take up to three months of paid parental leave in exchange for delaying their Social Security benefits by six months. Married couples could also transfer their benefits to their spouse so that one parent could take an even longer paid absence from work.
Outside of Congress, red states such as Alabama, Indiana, and Mississippi have all taken advantage of expanded Medicaid dollars that pay for postnatal care for mothers and children for a full year after birth. Other red states such as Texas and Wisconsin are also using combinations of federal and state dollars to provide postpartum care for shorter six-month periods. More red states should consider similar benefits for young mothers.
Every abortion is a collective failure of our ability to care for one another. No mother chooses to abort her own baby lightly. If more women had the confidence of knowing that they and their children would be taken care of, we would have far fewer abortions and a much stronger culture of life.
Conservatives scored a huge legal victory for families in Dobbs. Now, they must go on to fight for families again in Congress and legislatures across the country.
Democrats don’t care if babies are born into stable, married households — or indeed, whether they are born at all. There is a huge opening for a party that protects unborn life and also supports working families. At a moment when Democrats don’t seem to care about either one, Republicans can step forward now and become that party.
