During a press conference Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said American women need to be having more babies because lack of procreation is holding back economic growth, ThinkProgress reports, and he believes that whether or not women want to have children is somehow his business.
“People,” are now the new economic challenge in America, he noted, saying: “I did my part, but we need to have higher birth rates in this country. Meaning, baby boomers are retiring, and we have fewer people following them in the work force.” Yes, Ryan, tell us more about how much hard work you personally put into bearing your three children.
It’s true that birth rates in the U.S. have been declining, but it’s not all bad like Ryan makes it out to be. Birth rates for teenagers, for instance, hit record lows last year. That sounds like the opposite of a bad thing to most reasonable people.
Paul Ryan claims, “I’ve done my part” to raise American birth rate bc his wife, who doesn’t work, had 3 kids. If GOP wants to raise birth rate, how about childcare & healthcare legislation that helps Americans be parents while contributing meaningfully, by continuing to work? https://t.co/ev5VNtHzBj
— Faith Salie (@Faith_Salie) December 15, 2017
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards responded ot Ryan’s comments via Twitter on Friday, with a message that encouraged an increase of gender parity in our government: “If more members of Congress could get pregnant, maybe they wouldn’t tell teh rest of us when and why to get pregnant,” Richards wrote.
If more members of Congress could get pregnant, maybe they wouldn’t tell the rest of us when and why to get pregnant. https://t.co/pqFf7Srlkl
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) December 15, 2017
There’s a slightly more obvious solution to Ryan’s proposed problem, but of course he’s completely ignoring it because it involves immigrants. Letting more immigrants into the country to fill the jobs left by retiring baby boomers would be a way easier and quicker solution than instructing women to pop out more babies.
But considering Ryan has indicated he’s totally on board with President Trump’s anti-immigration positions, up to and including the multi-billion dollar border wall, that’s probably not an option he’ll be exploring any time soon.
He’s not the only Republican from Wisconsin who believes he’s entitled to voice an opinion on what women should do with their bodies for the good of the economy. Last month on the floor of the Wisconsin State Assembly, Wisconsin state Rep. Scott Allen made an argument for a bill that would “prevent health insurance plans for state employees from covering most abortions” — because more births will obviously fix all of our economic problems.
If we had a dollar for every time politicians wanted to dictate what women can and can’t do with their bodies, we’d be able to fix most economic problems in a heartbeat.