JD Vance draws praise, media criticism for longtime pro-family, pro-child stance

Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance is spurring national conversation over declining U.S. birth rates, decrying what he calls “the anti-child ideology that exists in our country.”

“We owe something to our country. We owe something to our future,” the Associated Press quoted Vance telling The Federalist in May 2021. “The best way to invest in it is to ensure the next generation actually exists.”

Mainstream media outlets have scoffed at Vance’s views, calling them “pronatalist” and alienating to voters.

“Pronatalism comes with baggage. It has been historically associated with aggressive nationalism and racial eugenics,” opined Ramesh Ponnuru for The Washington Post.

While acknowledging Vance’s own children are mixed-race, Ponnuru said Vance “has been accused of wanting more White children” and “risks coming across as bossy, or just plain weird – which is what Democrats have started saying about the Republican ticket since Vance was chosen.” 

Among family and marriage advocates, however, Vance has received credit for tackling a subject which hasn’t received a lot of attention previously. 

“We have to point to the fact that this is all brand new,” said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost in another interview with the AP. “We don’t have American politicians talking about this, and God bless him for raising the issue because we need to have that conversation.” 

‘Policymakers can’t be neutral on the question of family’ 

The U.S. once had a fertility rate of about 2.1 children per woman, which is enough to ensure the replacement of each generation, according to AP data. 

However, this number has been falling over the years. It dropped to its lowest recorded rate – 1.6 children per woman – in 2023. 

“We as a nation, as a society, policymakers, can’t be neutral on the question of family,” said Oren Cass, founder of the conservative think tank, American Compass. 

Cass disparaged what he sees as a culture of “you do you” and “all choices are equally valid” when considering the work of parenthood as an “indispensable foundation” for the nation. 

“That’s not to say, obviously, that you mandate or criminalize the alternative, but it is to say that we shouldn’t be neutral about it,” he said. 

Even Vance’s critics like Ponnuru acknowledge the problem of fewer children over time: “That’s a problem for Social Security and Medicare, for economic dynamism, and even for our military strength.” 

However, Ponnuru takes issue with the way Vance communicates his views, particularly in his criticism of the Democratic Party with a “childless cat ladies” trope. 

“Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I’ve got nothing against cats,” Vance told Megyn Kelly in an interview. “People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said. … This is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.” 

More affordable, appealing ‘family formation’ 

Vance needs to share a clear agenda to make “family formation” more affordable and appealing to Americans, said Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. 

“There’s no question the discussion around family life, childbearing and pronatalism has gotten a lot more popular and gotten media attention because of JD Vance,” said Wilcox, who also wrote the book Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization. 

One of Vance’s recent proposals involve boosting the Child Tax Credit from its current $2,000 per child to $5,000. Additionally, Vance has praised the country of Hungary’s approach to give low-interest loans to married couples with children, as well as income tax exemptions to women with four or more children. 

Vance has also called for policymakers to make the corporate world more accommodating to working parents, noting how his wife, Usha, felt “this incredible professional pressure to not have kids because it set back her professional advancement.” 

“What a weird society we’ve set up where moms who want to work, the thought that a lot of them are having is, ‘I can’t have more babies because it’s going to be bad for my career,’” Vance told Kelly. “How about we make the workplace more accommodating to working moms and working dads so that we can promote a real culture of life?” 

Some critics of Vance have mentioned immigration as one answer to the declining birth rate. While Vance was careful not to disparage immigrants, he believes this doesn’t sufficiently address the issue. 

“There’s nothing against immigrants, obviously. I’m married to the daughter of immigrants. But if your society is not having enough children to replace itself, that is a profoundly dangerous and destabilizing thing. You look across history – that’s a real problem.” 

Vance called Republicans the party of parents and kids, describing babies as “a profound moral good” who can change parents’ lives for the better. 

“Our entire society has become skeptical and even hateful towards the idea of having kids,” he said, citing factors people give as reasons to not have children, such as climate change or expensive housing prices. 

“But people have to remember that when you look back on your life (or) talk to people, the thing that they remember most is not their career or their education, it’s their family. And I just want us to be a country that’s pro-family.”