I Want to be a Mother But I Don’t Want to Deal With Car Seats, Said No Woman Ever

Anyone else excited to move past the JD Vance era? Remember when we didn’t have to think about him every day? Before I go on, please understand that if we all vote, and if we encourage our friends, family, and neighbors to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on November 5th, a post-JD Vance world is possible. Now I am not promising he will disappear overnight. He won’t. But if Democrats win decisively, the outlook for his political future will be grim. Now if that doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what will. 

Now back to car seats and their responsibility for America’s declining birth rate. At least, that’s the problem according to JD. It is true that America's birth rate is declining. And there are clear reasons to be alarmed by this, including but not limited to a smaller and older workforce, a shrinking tax base, and Social Security collapse. 

I am not here to discuss whether or not a declining birth rate is cause for alarm. Rather, as a mom of three young kids, a pediatrician, and child advocate, I would like to point out many of the actual reasons Americans might be hesitating to have children. 

But first, just a quick note about how absurd JD’s claim about car seat laws discouraging people from having children is. Car seats and car seat laws were a significant part of a comprehensive public health approach to reducing the incidence of motor vehicle collision injuries and deaths among children in this country. For decades, motor vehicle collisions were the leading cause of death for children, but thanks to collaboration between lawmakers, pediatricians, the automobile industry, public health officials, car seat manufacturers, law enforcement, and others, the motor vehicle collision mortality rate amongst children in the US has declined dramatically.