Iowa’s Gov. Kim Reynolds recently stated there is “no cause more worthy than protecting innocent unborn lives.” Please allow me to suggest one. How about supporting innocent born lives?

It certainly does appear the Hawkeye State governor cares more for the unborn than children living outside the womb. Last January, she was one of 16 Republican governors who turned down federal aid for children’s food aid this summer. A failure to get enough nutrition may lead to short height, behavior problems and developmental delays in a child. Iowa Hunger Coalition Board Chair Luke Elzinga noted Iowa has “food banks and food pantries across the state assisting record-breaking numbers of people.”

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance also believes in families with children. Maybe what he called “childless cat ladies” would decide to have kids if they were bearing them in a country where the government supported their choice. Did it occur to Vance, Reynolds or the other governors who refused federal aid that women who worry about feeding potential offspring would be less likely to have them?

But the concerns of couples contemplating parenthood go beyond providing nutrition. According to a Pew Research poll, 36% of adults under 50 without children cite the expense of raising children as a deterrent to having them. The fact the average American house costs $501,700, up $236,400 in constant dollars over the last two decades, has to be a major deterrent to enlarging family size. The Republican response? A proposed House budget for 2025 that cuts support for housing and transportation by 4.3% and rejects President Joe Biden’s proposal for a tax credit for first-time homebuyers and for building or preserving 2 million housing units.

Day care runs an average of around $16,000 for a child in 2024. According to Bank of America, these high costs may be driving women out of the workforce. Logic dictates they also deter couples from having children at all. How do other countries handle this problem? In 2021, Norway contributed $30,000 per year for a young child’s care, and Spain contributed $10,000. The U.S. coughed up $500, the lowest among 16 rich countries.

Costs are scary, too, for prospective parents once any children reach their late teens. At a time when a bachelor’s degree is seen as a key to economic success, prospective parents must fear the burden of paying college tuition, which has gone up more than three times in constant dollars since 1963. The provision for free community college in Biden’s 2025 budget proposal has little chance of passing over Republican opposition.

It’s not just a matter of money, either. The year 2023 was the hottest on record, and chances are 2024 will be hotter still. I contacted Dr. Lise Van Susteren, a psychiatrist who specializes in the physical and mental health effects of climate disruption. She told me the young adults she sees are “struggling with whether it is ethical to bring a child into the world when climate change will create chaotic life-threatening conditions.”

At a Mar-a-Lago dinner this past April, former President Donald Trump told energy executives from ExxonMobil and other companies that they should donate $1 billion to his campaign since he was committed to undoing Biden administration clean air policies. His running mate is also supporting repeal of electric vehicle tax credits and pollution regulations. Van Susteren says, “Nothing makes young adults feel more betrayed than when politicians know there is a problem and do nothing about it.”

What does it say about American support for having children when the United States offers no nationally paid maternity leave? The other six countries in the United Nations that do not are the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

No wonder the number of U.S. adults younger than 50 without children who say they aren’t likely to ever have them rose from 37% to 47% between 2018 and 2023. The fertility rate per woman of childbearing age in the U.S. has fallen from 2.05 kids to 1.79 in the past 30 years.

The way to encourage couples to have children in the United States is not through criticism, nor is it declaring sympathy only for the unborn. Common sense dictates that a United States with support for nutrition, housing, day care, parental leave and education will lead to more American families with children. Voters who care about these issues might want to listen carefully to candidates between now and Election Day.

— Keith Raffel, a resident scholar at Harvard University, is a syndicated columnist with Creators.