America Doesn’t Need Medals for Mothers

What is? Real Solutions and a Social Shift

The United States is the only industrialized country in the world without any form of federally mandated paid maternity (or paternity) leave. We are quite literally asking parents—most often mothers—to raise the next generation without a safety net, without dignity, and without time to heal.

Now, in a bid to reverse America’s declining birth rate, the Trump administration has proposed a series of pronatalist policies—including a $5,000 “baby bonus,” a “National Medal of Motherhood” (I wish I were dreaming that part) for women with six or more children, and a bizarre allocation of 30% of Fulbright scholarships to married people or parents.

The sentiment behind wanting to support families might be genuine, but the proposals are head-scratching.

First of all, it is heartbreaking to see women forced back to work just a few weeks after giving birth—not because they want to, but because they have no choice. Bills don’t stop. Rent and mortgages are due. Diapers aren’t cheap. And postpartum depression doesn’t care about your out-of-office reply. We don’t even allow puppies to leave their mothers before 8–12 weeks. Yet somehow, in the richest nation on earth, we afford new parents less compassion.

The onus should not fall on small businesses to pick up the slack either. We need serious, systemic solutions—and we need to address the underlying components of this “crisis” beyond the financial ones that aren’t being discussed.