Women Delay Having Kids Because Of Trump

While several members of the GOP may be trying to limit women's access to family planning, some women are arguing that they need birth control now more than ever. With the future of health care up in the air and social media bombarding us with stories of crises and climate change, feeling apprehensive about having children seems like a pretty rational response. But some women say they're holding off on kids because of President Trump's administration alone — and they have quite a few real fears driving their decision.

The women who have spoken up about their decision to forego parenting due to the current president have myriad valid concerns. They fear that, without Obamacare, their pregnancies could become pre-existing conditions or that they will not be allowed to make decisions about their own bodies. They've seen changes made to environmental protection in the United States that make them worry about their children's potential futures. They worry that their kids will not be welcome in a country where the president has signed executive orders banning all citizens from certain countries.

"We had about a month of trying to get pregnant last year," a 33-year-old woman of color from Ontario told Vice last year. She explained:

When Trump got elected we both freaked out. We just lost our nerve. ... I have a few Muslim friends where I live, and the things that happened to them in the last year I cannot believe. ... We're super scared of all this crazy white fragility takeover.

When Romper editor Danielle Campoamor went through an extremely difficult pregnancy a few years ago that put her and her son's life in danger, she and her husband were forced to consider late-term abortion. The experience made her wary of trying for a second child under a Trump administration. If she were pregnant with a baby who could not survive outside of the womb — as doctors feared for a while for her first child — she would want the ability to "end his life peacefully and humanely and in the only place he's ever known: my womb."

"Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s stance on abortion — particularly late-term abortions — truly terrifies me," Campoamor wrote for Romper in November. "When it comes to my future son or daughter, the only way I can completely protect them, is to not have them at all."

A 28-year-old from Vancouver, Keira, told Vice that the Trump administration's response to climate change sealed the deal for her. "Trump getting elected was for sure the last straw in a way," she told Vice in February. She explained:

I feel we're already in such a dangerous time for climate change and deniers. We have such a small window, I'm not sure if we even have time now to act on that. ... He's been pretty vocal about pushing through as many fossil fuel projects as possible, which makes it pretty much impossible to restrict emissions the way we need to if we're going to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Some women, however, believe in persisting despite their current fears. "Since Trump was elected in November, I’ve heard echoes of the same argument from friends and family: 'I just can’t imagine bringing a child into a world like this,'" Stephanie Kaloi, content manager at A Practical Wedding, wrote recently. She continued:

Kids are magic. They are gritty, hard, delightful, gorgeous magic. Have them or don’t, but don’t let Donald Trump be the reason you decide not to.

Deciding to have a child is a deeply personal decision, and circumstances are going to be different for each woman when it comes to their concerns over health care affordability or access to abortion. The women who are holding off on having a child because of Trump are definitely out there, though, and their concerns are all based on very real and very valid fears.