Why does J. D. Vance want more American babies?
Pronatalists fixate on tomorrow’s imaginary children. Baptism demands that we care for those already born.
Shortly after his inauguration as Vice President, J. D. Vance spoke at the annual March for Life, an anti-abortion rally in Washington, D. C. “Let me state very simply,” he said, “I want more babies in the United States of America.”
This was a surprising comment. Usually the “life” part of “March for Life” refers to the idea that life begins at conception, and those marching against abortion do so for the sake of the not yet born. But Vance seemed to be talking about lives that, regardless of your views on when life begins, do not yet exist. He was marching for life in a quantitative sense: for more life.
Three months into the second Trump administration, it’s clear Vance was being quite literal. The Department of Education has been gutted, a man who believes children should not be vaccinated is in charge of public health, and the mass deportation dragnet has begun sweeping up even citizen children with cancer. What he wants is simply more American babies, not necessarily better lives for those babies.
