Child Brides and a Baby Bonus

We have a problem

“At 16 and 17, when you’re going to have a baby and you cannot get married, the chances of having an abortion triple.” Missouri Representative Billington said. “And so, we all claim to be pro-life here in this body, claim to be pro-life, so now we’re going to vote on this bill where babies are gonna die if we pass this bill.”

Representative Billington is a Christian nationalist hoping to hoist his religion and “life at conception” beliefs on the rest of us. He is combining his anti-choice stance with a pro-child bride statement. He is also making up statistics.

The statement is quite dramatic, but the intent is to hasten more births in the state and the country. If these babies need to be born of child brides, so be it.

This is not unfamiliar territory for me — I was married right out of high school at 18, pregnant by 19, and delivered by 20. I couldn’t order a beer, but I could change a diaper. No bar hopping with my friends, but baby rocking alone in a tiny rental house I could barely afford.

I didn’t know what I was doing and it’s a wonder my oldest is still alive to tell the stories.

*A side note: Even as a teenage bride, I was able to go to college and graduate with a Master’s degree — the first in my family. How did I do it? Public schools and Pell grants and cheap daycare…all the things the Trump regime is hoping to pull away from folks who started out like me.

I am ashamed to say how young I was with my first now, but it was quite the norm in my small Arkansas town in the early 90s and it seems some Missouri Republicans are all about keeping child marriages alive and well in Missouri. Bring back teenage parents.

It’s important to understand that when the GOP speaks of “saving babies” they mean fetuses, not child brides.

My first-born. 23 and three…

I know that abortion bans and child marriages are tied up in Christian nationalism, but they are also becoming alarmingly mainstream on the right with a wave of “pro-natalism” and even an idea floated by Donald Trump to pay women $5,000 to have a baby.

It’s important to know that the government will not pony-up the $5,000 for a pregnancy, but only for a baby, which makes me wonder about the “life begins at conception” regulations. I guess it’s all good unless it’s about money.

The idea of paying women to deliver pregnancies makes my skin crawl. And the $5000 is not even a drop in the bucket when studies show raising a child from birth to 18 will cost over $233,000. That price does not include college tuition.

Creating a baby boom doesn’t happen by paying women a tiny sliver of what it costs to deliver a baby. Creating family friendly policies for parents would, though.

Policies like universal health care including maternal care. Policies like higher wages and lower housing prices. Policies for day care and education and parental leave and sick leave. These policies could help folks who want to become parents have the option to become parents.

But states like Missouri push abortion bans to force birth and child marriage instead.

One Missouri Senator is notorious in his belief in child marriage — his name is Mike Moon.

Sen Moon has been in the limelight several times for advocating for child marriage. He has also received press for his views on abortion, one time beheading and dismembering a chicken on Facebook Live to show his “pro-life” stance.

Yeah…that was confusing. Even for Missourians accustomed to crazy politicians.

Mike Moon once told a story of two Missouri children. He told the story during testimony in the Capitol. The children in the story? One was 11 and the other 12.

The 11-year-old found herself pregnant by the 12-year-old. Moon recounted that all was well because they were eventually married and are still married to this day. He used the story to back up his child marriage advocacy and prove that torturing small bodies with forced pregnancy and marriage is a good thing. That it all worked out in the end.

In 2018, Senator Mike Moon voted “no” on a bill raising the minimum age to legally get married from 15 to 16. That legislation is now Missouri law.

He lost that fight, but continues to fight against raising the age of consent for marriage to 18.

From CBS on the idea of a $5,000 check per baby:

Americans are having fewer babies, with the annual birth rate now standing near a record low. It's a trend that has implications for the nation's long-term outlook — and has drawn attention from the Trump administration, with the New York Times reporting that a proposal for a $5,000 "baby bonus" may be one option for juicing the birth rate.

A declining birth rate can spell long-term economic problems, including a shrinking labor force that's financially strapped to pay for medical services and retirement benefits for an aging population. But reversing a nation's declining birth rate could take far more than a one-time payment.

Wait…the Trump regime is promising to deport a million people and many of them are of child-bearing age and also pay taxes? Why would they deport folks instead of offering them $5,000 to give birth?

I think you know.

When the regime speaks of wanting a baby boom, they mean a white baby boom. They mean white moms get a check for delivering a white baby.

Republicans have created policies that do not make having a baby a promising endeavor. From the climate crisis to the job market crisis to the housing crisis to the inflation and greedflation…now is not a good to time deliver a new person into the world.

And instead of making conditions better for folks who would love to be parents, Republicans and the Trump regime plan to force folks to procreate with abortion bans backed up with Christian nationalist rhetoric and a hypothetical baby bonus which won’t even cover delivery.

The child bride movement is sick enough without the Christian nationalism and the racism.

~Jess