Opinion | Trump wants a baby boom. Here’s how to spur Americans to have kids. - Washington Post

An analysis of birth rates nationally showed two forces are pushing Americans away from having children: a broad cultural shift away from traditional families and a lack of high-quality, affordable child care and housing...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2025/trump-baby-boom-birth-rate-declining/

Crowd ERUPTS As Biden Drops MASSIVE Announcement On Stage #TDR

"President Biden promised on Tuesday to continue pushing to expand child care subsidies, early education and paid medical leave, agenda items left unfulfilled during his three and a half years in the White House. 

The promises, made in a speech to a crowd of enthusiastic caregivers at Union Station in Washington, were meant to reassure Democratic voters that he would use a second term to fight against Republicans who blocked his ambitious measures. 

He called for 12 weeks of paid family or medical leave, large investments in preschool for 4-year-olds, the extension of a child tax credit to help working families, and investments to give families access to high-quality child care for $10 per day."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA0N1p4FYnk

Why Some Parents Regret Having Children - The Atlantic

…Some people simply aren't cut out for raising children, and their kids suffer as a result. But perhaps fewer parents would be regretful if society didn't make parenting so hard. Decreasing parental regret could be possible, with a host of structural shifts: access to reproductive choice as well as individualized treatment for parental burnout and change to policies regarding child care, family leave, work schedules, and the gender pay and promotion gaps…

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/08/why-parents-regret-children/619931/

White House closes in on $1 trillion plan centered on child care, pre-K, paid family leave - The Washington Post

... While final numbers had not been determined, the largest efforts are expected to center on roughly $225 billion for child-care funding; $225 billion for paid family and medical leave; $200 billion for universal prekindergarten instruction; hundreds of billions in education funding, including tuition-free community colleges across the country; and other sums for nutritional assistance, the people familiar with the matter said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/04/19/white-house-families-plan/

I gave birth with no leave and a mountain of medical bills. No parent deserves to suffer like I did. - The Lily

... According to a 2019 analysis by UNICEF, the United States is the only country — out of the 41 wealthiest countries the agency examined — that does not provide any paid parental leave. President Biden's American Rescue Plan, signed into law last month, broadens who is covered by the FMLA and provides 14 weeks of paid leave — but it's temporary, and still can leave people like me out...

https://www.thelily.com/i-gave-birth-with-no-leave-and-a-mountain-of-medical-bills-no-parent-deserves-to-suffer-like-i-did/

What would parenting be like if fathers took six months of parental leave? Take a look - The Washington Post

The photos all show seemingly mundane moments of family life: A parent bathing an infant in a kitchen sink, another wrangling toddlers into a stroller, or coaxing a forkful of food into a daughter’s mouth. If the parents had all been mothers, the photos wouldn’t be particularly exceptional. ....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/09/07/what-would-parenting-be-like-if-fathers-took-six-months-parental-leave-take-look/

The GOP’s deeply flawed paid family leave plan, explained - Vox

It loans Social Security money to working parents...
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/13/18263790/paid-family-leave-bill-cradle-act

Stop asking parents to sacrifice Social Security benefits for paid family leave - The Hill

The federal government should fund family leave. But why help new parents out in the early years only to penalize them as seniors? ...
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/434799-stop-asking-parents-to-sacrifice-social-security-benefits-for-paid-family

Republicans propose new parents rob their own Social Security savings to fund 'paid' family leave - Daily Kos

Many Americans believe that early childcare is an important issue facing our country. Unlike most countries with electricity and running water, the U.S. is barbarically behind when it comes to the affordable quality options for our young children's care. Besides the fact that childcare in the United States is all over the map in regards to quality, the costs have become equivalent of a year's worth of public college...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1841530

Ivanka Trump promised her dad would deliver a great family leave plan. Here's what we got. - ThinkProgress

Ivanka Trump once promised that if her father was elected, she would ensure paid family leave was a staple in every workplace, and Donald Trump promised the program would finance itself. Two years later, the Trump administration is no closer to accomplishing this goal than they were when Ivanka and her father told prospective voters ....
https://thinkprogress.org/ivanka-trump-promise-paid-family-leave-c88357fba159/

Ivanka Trump-Backed Family Leave Plan Would Ask New Parents to Pick Between Retirement or Maternity Leave - Newsweek

"This is a way for Senator Rubio and the Republican party to get credit for caring about women and families without truly investing in a way to address a major problem," said Andrea Flynn, a fellow at The Roosevelt Institute. ....
https://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-trump-family-leave-maternity-retirement-1056970

Trump's budget calls for six weeks' paid family leave. What it will cost you -- CNBC

The president's proposal includes six weeks' paid leave for new mothers and fathers, yet implementing such a program could be costly......
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/12/trumps-budget-calls-for-six-weeks-paid-family-leave.html

The Politics Of Paid Family Leave (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

Paid family leave is available in every developed country, but not the U.S. Liberals have long argued it’s good for families. Conservatives call it a wasteful entitlement. But now, the possibility of compromise. Five states have passed laws to guarantee the benefit. Ivanka Trump has sold her father on it – the first time a Republican president has supported the idea. This hour On Point: forging a new consensus on paid family leave. — Anthony Brooks
Interview:
http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2017/07/07/the-politics-of-paid-family-leave

GOP congressman explains why people don’t need paid family leave, leaves ‘Morning Joe’ speechless

On Tuesday morning’s Morning Joe, host Mika Brzezinski welcomed House Freedom Caucus member Raul Labrador (R-ID) to discuss the failure of the Republican health care plan. Labrador opposed Trumpcare for not cutting enough, so Brzezinski opened the interview by asking him why he doesn’t support paid family leave. She was astonished when he didn’t seem to care....
https://thinkprogress.org/raul-labrador-paid-family-leave-832dd5094af7

Donald Trump’s family leave plan and the GOP’s ideological civil war.

Donald Trump has just unveiled a new set of proposals designed to help working parents meet their child care needs. Yes, you’ve read that right. Under the svengali-like influence of his daughter Ivanka—“Daddy, daddy, we have to do this,” Trump claims she told him—the Republican presidential candidate has decided to take a brief respite from saying whatever outrageous things pop into his head to instead outline what he intends to do for stressed-out mothers and fathers. The centerpiece of Trump’s child care plan is a federal guarantee of at least six weeks of paid maternity leave, which he’d finance by finding savings in the unemployment insurance program.

 But that’s not all! Trump has included something in his plan for almost everyone: new deductions to help defray child care costs and the costs involved in looking after elderly relatives, spending rebates for low-income families eligible for the earned-income tax credit, and much more. Given that Donald Trump is making these promises, it would be advisable to take a wait-and-see approach, as he’ll likely announce tomorrow that the media has twisted his words around and what he actually said is that he’s going to build a big, beautiful wall. What I can say with more certainty is that, whether he’s sincere or not, Trump’s championing of these proposals is a significant moment in the history of the modern Republican Party....
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/09/donald_trump_s_family_leave_plan_and_the_gop_s_ideological_civil_war.html

Despite Pro-Family Rhetoric, No Paid Leave For Makers Of Ivanka Trump’s Line

Ivanka Trump has vocally embraced pro-family corporate policies while stumping for her father on the campaign trail, but the company that designs her own clothing line offers no paid maternity leave.

A fashion designer for the G-III Apparel Group told the Washington Post in a piece published Monday that she received 12 weeks of unpaid leave when she became pregnant in 2015.

“It’s hard enough emotionally to come back to work right after having a baby,” the unnamed designer, who said she is a registered Republican and worked for G-III for four years, told the newspaper. “But to know you’re returning to a company that doesn’t value your choice to be a mother makes it harder.”...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/no-paid-maternity-leave-ivanka-trump-clothing-line

Yes, the United States is the only industrialized nation without paid family leave

New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand put Hillary Clinton’s stance on women’s issues front and center at the first night of the Democratic National Convention.

Gillibrand offered Clinton as a person who would bring America into the 21st century, and played off a popular television series about advertising executives in the 1960s where women were relegated to making coffee.

"Our policies are stuck in the Mad Men era," she said. "We are the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee workers paid family leave. Many women can't even get a paid day off to give birth."

Gillibrand’s comparison of America to the rest of the industrialized nations is a familiar Democratic talking point.

Bernie Sanders has said it. So has President Barack Obama. Twice.

The claim rates Mostly True, and here’s why....
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/25/kirsten-gillibrand/yes-us-only-industrialized-nation-without-paid-fam/