My son was stillborn in the summer of 2017. Everything was fine in pregnancy – until it wasn’t. After 37 weeks pregnant, I woke up at night with what felt like a constant mild contraction. We were not too worried. But because my brother was in the city and could stay with our daughters, we decided to be checked out in the labor and delivery of our hospital. They couldn’t find his heartbeat.
Caleb became one of the 21,000 pregnancies that end in stillbirth every year In the US that babies still includes very late in pregnancy, as Caleb was. Every year, About 3,500 babies Die after 37 weeks, but before you are delivered.
(A short remark: I use the word ‘baby’ when discussing the dead birth of my son, because that’s how I look at him. This language, I acknowledge, is controversial for some, because activists anti-abortion often armed ‘baby’ to limit the reproductive autonomy. However, my focus is to use the pregnant person to empower their experience)
I, like many who have experienced pregnancy loss, have Long struggle with feelings of failure. I felt that I had no ‘successful’ pregnancy; My body couldn’t do what it had to do; That it was unable to produce a living baby. Now, to add insult to injury, the Trump administration has introduced new economic incentives to encourage people to become pregnant- but only rewards live births.
If the parent of a stillborn child and a professor who did studied the case deepI believe that Trump’s attempts to pay people to have children, in combination with growing pronatist sentiments in the US, demonstrate the hypocrisy of the so -called “pro -life” policy of the administration.
‘We want more babies’
Pronatalism, an ideology aimed at encouraging people to have children based on the conviction that reduced birth rates are one cause From various social and economic problems, is rising in popularity. In the US, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance both expressed their wish to increase the birth rates of the nation (especially for white Americans).
For his inauguration, Trump explicitly said: “We want more babies. “In January 2025, during the anti-abortion march for life, Vance stated in the same way that he wants”More babies in the United States”Ideally born in Meer”Beautiful young men and women. “
Only a few months after Trump’s inauguration, his administration reportedly weighed multiple policy options to stimulate parenthood. These early ideas include a “baby bonus”Payment to mothers after delivery and efforts before “Training” women about their menstrual cycles So they can better understand when they are most likely to get pregnant. His team also considered the expansion of the federal tax credit for childrenThese tax benefits give parents with qualifying children to compensate for the costs of increasing them. Some of those proposals ended up in the recently ‘large, great account’ of the president of the president.
The potential “baby bonus” turned into a “Trump account”, an investment account for every newborn American citizen who receives $ 1,000 in government money, in the “large, beautiful account”. That money is invested to grow until the child turns 18, when it can be withdrawn and used Qualifying purchases about education and home ownership. Experts say that this policy mainly benefits Parents of the above income who have the means to make the permitted additional contributions of a maximum of $ 5,000 a year to the account.
The new law also increases the amount of the federal tax credit for children. The amount that is credited to the taxpayers for each child was set to descend from $ 2,000 to $ 1,000 in 2026. Instead, it will now be set permanently on $ 2,200.
It is important that these financial benefits are only available for those who produce a living baby. None of this money is currently available for Stillbirths. A stillborn baby does not do anything for living birth figures. A pregnant person can do everything “good” for 40 weeks of pregnancy and give birth on or around their expiry date (yes, stillbirth still requires the birth). But when the baby is born still, that person – that parent – is not eligible for one of Trump’s stimuli.
This policy will probably accentuate the feelings of failure that are inherent in pregnancy loss. They certainly do for me.
Reducing stillborn would be very ‘pro-life’
In this country, some people are much more likely to ‘fail’ to obtain these live-Birth-related stimuli.
Black Women Amore than twice as much chance as white women to have a stillbirth. Women with a lower income are confronted with double The risk of stillbirth compared to women with a higher income.
Financial incentives that are bound by living delivery will not reduce stillborn or tackle these differences. The Trump administration shows no interest in the alarming stillbirth percentage of the US, even if it is higher than much of our pear countriesAnd although reducing stillborn would be an effective way to increase the birth rate of the nation.
In Trump’s search to promote pregnancy, he has often expressed his wish to increase access in vitro fertilization (IVF), apparently not aware that IVF is also a risk factor Doubles – if not triples – the chance of stillbirth. In addition, the recent cuts of his administration for Medicaid will hinder access to prenatal care, and less prenatal care will be associated with a Increased risk From stillbirth.
Reducing stillborn is certainly a “pro-life” cause. But the policy of this “pro-life” president will not help.
Some parents whose babies die after birth can get benefits
Financial incentives for living birth reinforce cruel feelings of parental failure. But that does not mean that it would be logical to give the same rewards to parents after a stillbirth.
A stillborn baby does not need an investment account. Caleb does not go to university. He is dead. When I started working on my family’s taxes at the beginning of 2018, I knew that Caleb would not count for the tax credit for children. I was not going to incur the costs to eliminate it – I am not allowed to raise him.
But some parents whose children died shortly after birth, can still get the Trump investment account and the tax credit for children.
According to the law, when a baby is born alive – defined as breathing, or show other proof of life, such as a heartbeat, pulsation of the umbilical cord or voluntary muscle movement – the newborn counts as a child for the federal tax credit, even when the baby dies later. Live birth has always been a condition for the federal tax credit. For the new Trump account, if a baby lives long enough for his parents to open an investment account practically, they could obtain that incentive. The account would stop being a Trump account When the child dies.
Live birth is the dividing line here. It means a material difference between parents of a stillborn baby and the parents of a deceased newborn.
But there is no equipment difference. Parents of a baby stillborn his practically in the same position as parents whose newborn has died during pregnancy. Both have incurred similar costs when preparing the child, and neither will buy more diapers.
Technically, living birth improves the lagging American birth rate. But just like stillborn, babies who die shortly after birth do not grow and contribute to society. Both sets of parents are therefore in a similar place, from the pronatalist position. They will not raise that child; They ‘failed’ to add another body to the American workforce.
Yet the government indicates that parents of deceased newborns earn the government benefits, and parents like me not.
All parents need more help
I think it makes sense to apply a number of financial benefits for living delivery to Stillbirth. Nevertheless, many in the reproductive rights movement find this idea extremely problematic because of the implications for access to abortion. Applying the tax credit for children to a fetus can determine theoretically “fetal personality” legal concept That a fetus has the same legal rights and protection as a living person.
As a result, Proponents of abortion rights are extremely hesitant aboutNot completely against, the idea of tax credits for fetuses.
But it is possible to make financial support legislation without contributing to arguments of anti-abortion “fetal personality”. And that is not to concentrate that policy on the baby, but on the people – the birth parents – who would receive financial support.
Eight states offer tax credits for stillbirth. The goal is to help parents with the Surprisingly expensive costs From stillbirth. This includes some “fetal personality” guide, abortion banning states such as Arkansas, Louisiana and North Dakota. But it also includes states where abortion remains legal, including Arizona, ConnecticutMichigan, and Minnesota.
Connecticut currently offers the largest income tax credit for Stillbirth in the Nation, at $ 2,500. It came into force on July 1, 2022-A week after the Supreme Court deleted the federal right to abortion, and on the same day the First-in-the-Nation law of Connecticut to protect abortion providers who provided patients outside the state.
Giving people a tax credit After stillbirth, the inherent feelings of failure will not delete. But it does mean compassion and recognition. The benefits also have tangible impact by helping parents with costs related to pregnancy and birth. That source is especially important when you consider who is the most risk of experiencing stillbirth – black women, women with less economic means and those who became pregnant via IVF.
Over A third of pregnancies Do not result in a living birth. Pregnancy loss is not a failure. It is an unfortunate, yet common way for the pregnancy to end. (It has been eight years since Caleb’s death, and I still have to remind myself of this.) The government policy does not have to be – and should not be treated as a failure, but instead as something that deserves compassion. And it is possible to do this without threatening abortion rights.
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