The Trump administration has been soliciting ideas on ways to encourage Americans to get married and have more children, according to a new report in the New York Times.

Some of the proposals have ranged from ridiculous (reserving Fulbright scholarships for married applicants or those with children) to unnerving, like awarding a “National Medal of Motherhood” to women with six or more children, a tradition once embraced by Nazi Germany. Most of the economic proposals face serious headwinds given that Republicans are focused on cutting at least $1.5 trillion from the federal budget. Still, if the self-described “fertilization president” throws his weight behind one or several “pronatalist” ideas, Republicans might very well scramble to accommodate.

One idea Trump might be more likely to endorse is a lump-sum “baby bonus” — the Times floated a proposal for a $5,000 payment to mothers after giving birth — which Trump recently said “sounds like a good idea.” This wasn’t the first time he expressed support for the concept: At the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump declared that he would “support baby bonuses for a new baby boom.”

While the mix of recent pronatal proposals has ignited fierce debate and skepticism on the left — one prominent progressive advocate called them “state-sponsored coercion in a milk-maid dress” — a baby bonus itself is hardly radical; countries around the world use them to support new parents. What’s at stake in the US isn’t whether these relatively small payments might nudge birth rates upward or provide some short-term financial relief, but whether embracing them here and in this moment would bolster a political agenda focused on traditional gender roles and reproductive oppression, while ignoring deeper societal investments parents actually need.

How baby bonuses work

There are different versions of the baby bonus idea floating around US policy circles right now; in addition to the $5,000 payment, the Niskanen Center think tank recently pitched a $2,000 baby bonus (with the federal budget constraints clearly top of mind) and the American Compass think tank has been pitching a version that would give $2,000 to single parents but $4,000 to married couples, part of a broader conservative push to incentivize marriage.

During the presidential campaign last year, Democratic........

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