The same folks that brought us Project 2025 are working on new policies to address what they say is “America’s family crisis.” Organizers at the Heritage Foundation have announced targeted efforts to encourage Americans to marry young and even skip over education in order to start a family.
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We previously told you that Project 2025 was introduced as a step by step guide on how to run the U.S. government under new Republican leadership. In the single year that President Donald Trump took office, the controversial right-wing agenda is already more than 50 percent compete, according to the Project 2025 tracker. Now, that a potentially new set of family-oriented policies is on the rise, critics of Project 2025 are raising alarms.
“The government’s primary role is to clear the weeds and prevent its policies and programs from poisoning the ground,” reads the report, which was led by Roger Severino, Heritage’s vice president of economic and domestic policy. “Unfortunately, except for radically redefining the institution, marriage is not currently a federal priority.”
To fix the ongoing “crisis,” Heritage suggested an emphasis on two-parent, heterosexual families. The group even outlined “marriage bootcamps,” which would prepare couples for marriage. At the completion of the bootcamps, couples would received a financial award and a wedding ceremony.
What’s more is the new report also makes shocking stipulations about child care and parenting. According to the right-wing organization, marriage should be the only gateway to parenthood, so this means reproductive technology like in vitro fertilization (IVF) would be limited if Heritage’s proposal comes to life.
“A babies-at-all-costs mentality would come at too great a cost, and not just financially, but morally and spiritually” and “intentionally denies a right due to every child conceived — to be born and grow in relationship with his or her mother and father bound in marriage,” the report said about IVF.
Heritage also encouraged Americans to have more children naturally citing a decline in birth rates. But although the birth rate has been declining for years, new studies find minority briths now make up the majority of child births in the country,” according to research by the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.
White births have fallen below 50 percent for the first time ever, which could’ve influenced the Heritage Foundation — which is owned and operated by white Christians — to push for more babies and more American families. The report framed the decline in birth rates as a cultural problem rather than an economic or personal choice.
While on the surface, these policies might sound promising to Americans ready to start their own families, Heritage’s traditional religious rules and far-right values have many frightened about a potential attack against single people.
The new report also proposed a “universal day of rest” set to limit alcohol sales and discourage online dating. Heritage cited research showing “couples who meet online are also less likely to get married in the first place.”
Taking a book out of Trump, Heritage is also proposing marriage-based savings accounts similar to the administration’s “Trump Accounts.” For couples who marry before 30, they would receive a federal account with $2,500 over three years along with certain tax credits.
Finally, Heritage doubled down on its previous assertion that rolling back regulations on housing and child care would make it easier for families to afford raising children. Under the new policies, career ambition and higher education would take the back burner to starting a family. But despite the organization’s plan, more and more Americans are still rejecting the idea of starting a family early.
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