Thanks to ‘pronatalism,’ now conservatives want menstruation education

America’s “pronatalist” movement — a sprawl of fringe activists, think tanks and current occupants of the White House — is having a viral moment. Vice President JD Vance publicly clamors for “more babies in the United States of America.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a memo urging his department to give precedence to communities with “marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.” Elon Musk claims declining birth rates are a “bigger risk to civilization than global warming.” (The dip in America’s birth rate is attributed in part to fewer teen pregnancies.)

At the helm is Donald Trump, the self-nicknamed “fertilization president,” who has called for an all-out “baby boom” and an examination of policy proposals to incentivize procreation — and in particular, to increase the size and status of traditional nuclear (and white) families. Among the possibilities floated are a “National Medal of Motherhood” award for women with at least six children; prioritization of parents in distribution of government-funded Fulbright fellowships, with 30% set aside for applicants who are married with children; a $5,000 cash bonus to married women when they give birth; and public education programs about the menstrual cycle so girls and women “better understand when they are … able to conceive.”

Never mind that the motherhood medal inspiration is straight out of a Nazi playbook; a 1938 German law created the Cross of Honor of the German Mother, a swastika-adorned gold badge presented to mothers of eight or more (if both parents aligned with Nazi myths of racial purity). Or that the Fulbright distribution sounds an awful lot like now-verboten DEI quotas. Or that the $5,000 cash award would hardly cover the average out-of-pocket cost for giving birth in this country.

The policy that jumps out to me is the menstrual education mandate. I have fought for equitable menstruation policies, from axing the “tampon tax” to ensuring the provision of free period products in schools. Comprehensive education about menstrual cycles is a drum I beat regularly — including in the Los Angeles Times two years ago in an opinion article headlined: “Florida wants to bar schools from talking about menstruation. What would Judy Blume say?”

At the time, lawmakers were advancing, and would eventually pass, a law that banned discussion of periods in the state’s public elementary school classrooms. Blume did indeed weigh in — with a simple message on social media, “Sorry, Margaret,” in reference to the title character of her 1970 preteen classic, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” — and with a full-throated rebuke.

That law remains in effect today. Kids deserve to know how their bodies work. Gen Z and millennial adults do too. Many of them received little to no formal sex education when they were in school.

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe vs. Wade and sent abortion rights back to the states, I have argued that menstrual literacy is more than merely deserved — but akin to mandatory self-defense. With abortion outlawed or restricted in 28 states, and rising criminalization for pregnancy outcomes like miscarriage, having full fluency in menstrual cycles — not just the “how” but the “when” conception can occur — is urgent, even life-saving, knowledge.

This lack of comprehension affects civic life and leadership. Among public examples of menstrual ignorance, engineers at NASA — real live rocket scientists! — had no clue how many tampons a female astronaut would need for one week in space. Their verbatim query to the legendary Sally Ride — “Is 100 the right number?” — became the subject of a cult classic song.

And another example, with dire consequence: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, speaking about the state law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, did not know how weeks of pregnancy are counted. He claimed a six-week ban equated to at least six weeks to obtain an abortion, seemingly unaware that pregnancy is measured from the last period, not conception or a missed period — which means a person could have as little as two weeks to obtain an abortion.

If those in charge are clueless about basic biology, or prone to peddling murky math and lies, education is indeed our only antidote. Which was why in the immediate aftermath of the end of Roe, I proposed ways health agencies could help amplify simple information — for example, by requiring menstrual product companies doing business in the U.S. to provide standardized, medically accurate information about the menstrual cycle in packaging and on consumer websites, following the example of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s mandate for uniform language about the risks and symptoms of toxic shock syndrome.

I suppose it’s not entirely out of the question; the F.D.A. is under new management, after all. But we appear to be living in the age of Trump-endorsed Menstruation 101. It’s hard to stomach when framed as a means to teach girls and women how to get pregnant, rather than to make their own informed decisions about pregnancy and their bodies.

Back in 2023, I could not have quite imagined this political reality when I wrote: “Take it from Margaret. Periods are not partisan; we all bleed red.” Now I suggest there is no choice but to leverage the moment, Judy Blume-style, and speak up even more loudly and more persuasively to advocate better, healthier and more accurate information.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is the executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at New York University School of Law.