From Sparta to MAGA: How Fascists Weaponize Motherhood

This $5,000 “baby bonus” is just the latest in a long line of coercive, authoritarian tactics.

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I was texting a friend last week, and she wrote back, “I was waiting to see if you were going to have a piece about the $5,000 bonus for women having kids (along with the dumb f*ck medal proposal too). Did I miss something around that?”^⁠¹

I assured her that no, she didn’t miss anything. I just hadn’t had time to scream about it publicly yet. Work is busy, and honestly, the sheer absurdity of the $5,000 baby bonus proposal has taken my breath away. This isn’t support; it’s manipulation. This isn’t about helping mothers — it’s about controlling them.

Then @motherforward asked me to calculate my receipts. This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked to tally the costs of care, but this organization is one of my new favorites, and I love how they are building power. So I said yes. My total came to $278,879, and I know I forgot things. That number includes only a rough estimate of what it’s taken to raise my son. Social safety net programs like Medicaid and WIC helped reduce the burden, but didn’t change the system designed to keep women in place.

So, what’s going on? Apparently, the U.S. birth rate is declining. Honestly, I had no idea. We live on a planet nearing 8 billion people, so the idea that one country might have a population issue feels like a red herring. Either way, President Trump recently praised Vice President Vance for proposing a one-time $5,000 payment to new moms. They claim it’s about “supporting families” and “honoring motherhood.”

Seriously? This party has a long history of using “family values” as a shield for harmful policy. I became aware of this disconnect in high school when Newt Gingrich was touting his “Contract with America,” which also stemmed from a Heritage Foundation mandate. This new “baby bonus” proposal is more of the same — an empty gesture meant to look like support but lacking any substance that true care requires. There is no long-term structure, no understanding of the actual needs of families, and absolutely no equity. (Though let’s be honest: they’re not interested in equity unless it props up a mediocre white man. I digress.)

The Century Foundation explains clearly how proposals like these are coercive, not compassionate.^⁠² Mothers want and need policies that provide actual care, including: affordable healthcare, affordable high-quality child care, affordable and safe housing, and — most of all — time. Time to heal, time to bond, time to rest, time to live. Time, immemorial, has been denied to mothers in systems built on exploitation.

Tactics of Reproductive Control

(used by fascist regimes past and present)

• Framing motherhood as a national duty

• Banning abortion & contraception

• Offering financial “baby bonuses”

• Treating childbirth like factory labor

• Criminalizing reproductive knowledge

• Undermining women’s autonomy to serve the state

We’ve seen this pattern before. Time and again, regimes have attempted to control women’s bodies under the guise of “saving the nation.” From Ancient Sparta to Fascist Italy to modern-day Russia, Hungary, and the United States, reproductive control has been framed as patriotic duty. But far-right natalism only glorifies motherhood as long as it serves the state. The moment care or autonomy is requested, the support disappears. These ideologies are not just about childbirth — they are deeply connected to anti-trans legislation, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and white nationalist agendas.^⁠³ They weaponize motherhood, and then they build policy to match.

In response, I created a new printable guide: How Authoritarian Regimes Weaponize Motherhood. It connects historical examples to present-day tactics, traces patterns across eight eras, and offers a framework to resist through education, agitation, and care-rooted action. You can download it below and share it widely.

So, what can you do? First, join Mother Forward’s campaign. Fill out your own receipt. Be honest. Include the prenatal visits, the sleepless nights, the money you didn’t earn while caregiving, the therapy you needed to cope with the weight of it all. My total was $278,879. Subtract $5,000 and you’re still left with more than 98% uncovered. This isn’t economic relief. It’s an insult layered over erasure.

Mothers need real things: Paid family leave. Universal, high-quality child care rooted in family choice. Affordable healthcare. Safe and accessible housing. Legal access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion. And at the end of the day, what we truly need is dignity, not pageantry, not medals, not tax-time gimmicks. Dignity and respect for the hard, often invisible, work of caregiving.

Here’s what you can do next:

1. Join the campaign: Fill out your own “receipt” via @motherforward’s form.

2. Mail it to the White House — or let a Mailing Mom send it on your behalf.

3. Share your story on social media. Use your voice. Be specific.

4. Demand real pro-family policies, not coercive one-time gimmicks designed to pacify and distract.

I’m not raising a child for a tax break. I’m raising a human in a system that should care about both of us.

1. Pequeño IV, Antonio. “Trump Calls $5,000 ‘Baby Bonus’ For New Mothers ‘A Good Idea’—What We Know About Incentive Proposal.” Forbes, April 23, 2025, sec. Business. https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2025/04/23/trump-calls-5000-baby-bonus-for-new-mothers-a-good-idea-what-we-know-about-incentive-proposal/.

2. Goldin, Gayle. “Mothers Want Pro-Family Policies, Not Coercive Incentives to Give Birth.” The Century Foundation, May 1, 2025. https://tcf.org/content/commentary/mothers-want-pro-family-policies-not-coercive-incentives-to-give-birth/.

3. Darby, Seyward. “The Dark History of the Far Right’s Natalism.” Vogue, May 3, 2025. https://www.vogue.com/article/dark-history-of-the-far-rights-natalism.