JD Vance was an early voice to warn about our baby bust

MILWAUKEE — Former President Donald Trump ’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), was a rare public figure warning about the United States’s low and falling birthrate last decade . He’s also nearly alone in speaking about this baby bust on the floor of Congress.

And of course, he’s been attacked as a racist for mentioning the problem.

Back in 2019, before he ran for office, Vance commented on low and falling birthrates in the U.S. and what they reflected about U.S. policy failures:

“Do people look to the future and see a place worth having children in? Do they have economic prospects and the expectation that they're going to be able to put a good roof over that kid's head, food on the table, and provide that child with a good education? By every statistic that we have, people are answering 'no' to all of those questions. Our people aren't having enough children to replace themselves. That should bother us.”

The Washington Post responded by running a smear piece claiming this was tied to white nationalism, a claim the writer grounded on the false claim that Vance was worried about "white birth rates."

Vance, during COVID, also correctly pointed out a negative consequence of low birthrates: neurotic helicopter parenting.

This year, Vance took to the Senate floor to lament the lack of babies in the U.S. and among our allies.

Vance is correct that a low and falling birthrate is both harmful and a reflection of cultural rot. But to his critics, it’s unacceptable to admit this.

One article published today upon Vance’s nomination painted him as a cultural extremist, with this passage:

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“He has stood against abortion rights and some LGBTQ+ rights measures while supporting policies he argues would increase birth rates in the United States, such as making childbirth free and financially incentivizing couples to have children. Vance and his wife, Usha Vance , a lawyer he met at Yale, have three children.”

In Europe and Asia, commentators and governments understood the problem of the baby bust long ago. The U.S. has been late to understand this problem — in fact, the problem hasn’t been mentioned yet from the stage at the Republican National Convention. Vance deserves credit for bringing it to people’s attention. Hopefully, pro-family policy will gain center stage in the GOP now.