Elon Musk, JD Vance and why ‘pronatalism’ is having a moment right now
Their mission is simple: Make more babies. Lots of them.
Pronatalism, a movement that promotes childbearing in response to global birth rate declines, is having a moment right now under the Trump administration. Elon Musk − the head of the Department of Government Efficiency and reportedly a father of 14 by multiple women − has called low birth rates "a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming." Last month, President Donald Trump said he'll be known as "the fertilization president," and, according to The New York Times, his administration has started hearing policy proposals aimed at incentivizing people to have more kids.
Vice President JD Vance seemed to sum up the administration's agenda bluntly at the March for Life rally in January: "Let me say very simply: I want more babies in the United States of America."
Pronatalism has drawn a wide range of proponents. Some are religious, some atheist. Some conceive children naturally, others through in-vitro fertilization, or IVF. Despite their differences, all agree on one thing: America's plummeting birth rate is a problem, and, unless something changes, society may be doomed.
How to go about solving that problem, however, is where things get complicated.
Jennifer Sciubba, a demographer and the author of the book "8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World," says the varying types of people behind pronatalism − and their approaches to it − extends to the Trump administration, too.
"There are so many different varieties of pronatalism and so many different motivations behind it," she says, adding that Vance probably represents "people who see it more from a religious lens, and, often, they are focused more on families and communities. And then there are some − which I think is probably where you're going to land with Elon Musk − who are thinking about it more from an existential point of view."
Why some have latched on to pronatalism
Malcolm and Simone Collins are two prominent pronatalists. They co-host the podcast "Based Camp," in which they discuss politics, human sexuality and pronatalism, and they founded the pronatalist organization Pronatalist.org.
They have four children, and Simone is pregnant with their fifth. Malcolm says he wants at least seven − ideally 13 − but jokes his wife has pledged to keep having children "until they pull out (her) uterus." Because of fertility problems, he says, the couple have children through IVF.
Collins says pronatalism is not a right-wing movement; however, it's associated with the right because Republicans are more willing to discuss declining birth rates than Democrats are.
"Pronatalism has sort of become the global warming of the right. It's a broad statistical issue that is going to lead to the collapse of our civilization," Collins says. "And, for whatever reason, the other side is unable to acknowledge it."
Sciubba, meanwhile, does not identify as pronatalist. She says she wants to live in a world where each person can have as many children as they want, when they want.
However, she does say pronatalists have a point about America's population forecast. According to a White House news release in May 2024, the birth rate in the United States has been declining since 2007. It's not just America either; global births have been down since 1960.
The reasons, Sciubba says, are complex. For starters, more people feel they simply can't afford to have families amid economic uncertainty and rising housing prices. More couples are also delaying marriage, shortening their window to conceive naturally with their spouse. More people also don't see children as necessary to a fulfilling life.
If the birth rate keeps declining, Sciubba says, institutions that rely on young people to support older people will suffer. These include Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
"It is a problem when, over time, you have lower birth rates," she says. "There are not enough workers to pay into the system to support growing numbers of older people."
Sciubba suspects our politicians know this. However, she says, it's probably much easier − and more politically convenient − for them to encourage people to have more children than it is to overhaul these institutions.
"It's politically really difficult to change the systems that were built during a time when it looked like we were going to have infinite population growth and now we don't," Sciubba says. "It is much easier politically to put in place a family-friendly policy, or a pronatal policy, than it is to overhaul Social Security."
Elon Musk's 'harem' and why pronatalism is so controversial
Despite their united goal to increase the population, pronatalists can differ greatly in how they believe a family should be structured. Some, like Musk, take more unconventional paths.
In an article in the The Wall Street Journal published April 15, Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk's many children, detailed the billionaire's "harem drama." Musk's approach to family life has drawn heavy backlash from his detractors.
Some critics of pronatalism take issue with what they see as the movement's emphasis on promoting births in any context. After all, they say, being a parent is about much more than bringing children into the world; it's about raising them well, too.
On the flip side, Sciubba says, the more conservative attitude toward marriage and family held by some pronatalists on the right has probably alienated some liberals from the movement. Some feminists also worry that pronatalism's influence on politics may lead to efforts to limit women's freedom.
"Once you started invoking things like 'trad wives' or saying women needed to return to traditional roles as a means of pronatalism, that was going to be an argument that was going to be only on the right and not on the left, because it was seen as anti-feminist," Sciubba says.
In Collins' view, pronatalism isn't about forcing anyone to have kids. It's about empowering those who do want them.
"It's not forcing the people who have no kids to have kids. It's about helping the people who want to have a lot of kids, want this to be part of how they're structuring their lives, to have even more kids."