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Heritage paper on families calls for 'marriage bootcamp,' more babies
Source: Washington Post
Heritage paper on families calls for ‘marriage bootcamp,’ more babies
The conservative think tank aims to boost U.S. marriage and birth rates through recommendations to discourage online dating, restrict pornography, create tax credits for bigger families and more.
January 8, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. EST 55 minutes ago
A banner of President Donald Trump hangs on the western face at the Heritage Foundation building near the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post)
By Brianna Tucker and Jacob Bogage
A conservative think tank tied to the architects of Project 2025 is rolling out a sweeping set of policy proposals aimed at reshaping American families and promoting marriage and childbearing between heterosexual couples, according to a draft report obtained by The Washington Post.
{snip}
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/08/heritage-report-promote-marriage-births/
44 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Family Code of 1936
Unlike earlier codes that arranged for temporary and transitive laws as a step toward the revolutionary vision of family; the Code of 1936 marked an ideological shift away from Marxist / revolutionary visions of the nuclear family.[12] Coinciding with the rise of Stalinism, the law demanded the stabilizing and strengthening of the family. "The "withering-away" doctrine, once central to socialist understand of the family, law, and the state, was anathematized."[5]
The 1936 code emerged along with an eruption of pro-family propaganda.[12] For the first time, the code put restrictions on abortion and imposed fines and jail time for any that received or performed the service. The code also enacted a bevy of laws aimed to encourage pregnancy and child birth. Insurance stipends, pregnancy leave, job security, light duty, child care services and payments for large families. In another drastic move, the code made it more difficult to obtain a divorce. Under the code, both parties would need to be present for a divorce and pay a fine. There could be harsh penalties for those who failed to pay alimony and child-support payments.[5]
"Our demands grow day to day. We need fighters, they build this life. We need people."[5] The wider campaign to encourage the family unit elevated motherhood to a form of Stakhanovite labor. During this time, motherhood was celebrated as patriotic and the joys of children and family were extolled by the country's leaders.
Family Edict of 1944
The Family Edict of 1944 would be a continuation of the conservative trending of the 1936 code. Citing the heavy manpower losses and social disruption following World War II, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet enacted laws that would further encourage marriage and childbirth.
The 1944 Edict offered greater state-sponsored benefits to mothers, including: Extended maternity leave, increased family allowances even to unmarried mothers, promises of burgeoning child care services, targeted labor protections, and most notably, state recognition and the honorary title "Mother Heroine" for mothers who could produce large families.[13]
The edict also sought to preserve the family unit by making divorces even more difficult to obtain. Fines were increased and the parties were often ordered to attempt reconciliation. Divorce also became a public matter. Divorcees were required to appear in public court and their intent was published in the local newspaper.[14]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_in_the_Soviet_Union#Family_Code_of_1936
Unlike earlier codes that arranged for temporary and transitive laws as a step toward the revolutionary vision of family; the Code of 1936 marked an ideological shift away from Marxist / revolutionary visions of the nuclear family.[12] Coinciding with the rise of Stalinism, the law demanded the stabilizing and strengthening of the family. "The "withering-away" doctrine, once central to socialist understand of the family, law, and the state, was anathematized."[5]
The 1936 code emerged along with an eruption of pro-family propaganda.[12] For the first time, the code put restrictions on abortion and imposed fines and jail time for any that received or performed the service. The code also enacted a bevy of laws aimed to encourage pregnancy and child birth. Insurance stipends, pregnancy leave, job security, light duty, child care services and payments for large families. In another drastic move, the code made it more difficult to obtain a divorce. Under the code, both parties would need to be present for a divorce and pay a fine. There could be harsh penalties for those who failed to pay alimony and child-support payments.[5]
"Our demands grow day to day. We need fighters, they build this life. We need people."[5] The wider campaign to encourage the family unit elevated motherhood to a form of Stakhanovite labor. During this time, motherhood was celebrated as patriotic and the joys of children and family were extolled by the country's leaders.
Family Edict of 1944
The Family Edict of 1944 would be a continuation of the conservative trending of the 1936 code. Citing the heavy manpower losses and social disruption following World War II, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet enacted laws that would further encourage marriage and childbirth.
The 1944 Edict offered greater state-sponsored benefits to mothers, including: Extended maternity leave, increased family allowances even to unmarried mothers, promises of burgeoning child care services, targeted labor protections, and most notably, state recognition and the honorary title "Mother Heroine" for mothers who could produce large families.[13]
The edict also sought to preserve the family unit by making divorces even more difficult to obtain. Fines were increased and the parties were often ordered to attempt reconciliation. Divorce also became a public matter. Divorcees were required to appear in public court and their intent was published in the local newspaper.[14]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_in_the_Soviet_Union#Family_Code_of_1936
"Large" families meant at least 10 children.
I hope this was referenced in footnotes in the "Project 2025" paper. Credit should go where credit is due, and Stalin's contribution was substantial.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/nazi-germanys-lebensborn-program-children-for-hitler/
Children for Hitler
The Nazi Lebensborn Program was conceived to provide A supply of Aryan children for the future of the Third Reich.
This article appears in: April 2020
By Brent Douglas Dyck
By 1936, 18-year-old Hildegard Koch had reached a crossroads in her young life as she finished her schooling. Her leader in the local Bund Deutscher Mädel (the League of German Girls), gave her some advice: “If you don’t know what to do, why not give the Führer a child? What Germany needs more than anything is racially valuable stock.” It was the first time that Koch had heard of the Lebensborn Program.
In 1933, the year Hitler and the Nazis came to power, the birth rate in Germany was 14.7 per 1,000 people. This was less than half what it had been at the turn of the century. Additionally, there were hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in Germany every year. These two practices alarmed the Nazi regime. The Nazis needed children if they were to accomplish the two goals of Nazi ideology: conquer territory in the East and establish Aryan supremacy over Europe. Healthy young boys were needed to grow up to be soldiers in the German Army. Healthy young girls were needed to grow up and give birth to the next generation of super soldiers.
Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, founded the Lebensborn Program on December 12, 1935. Lebensborn means “the fountain of life.” The program actually provided three services: it gave pregnant women, either married or unmarried, a place to give birth to their babies and receive the best medical care; a meeting place for men and women of true Aryan stock to create babies for Adolf Hitler; and a place to raise children who had Aryan features after they had been kidnapped from their parents from foreign countries.
Himmler explained the main purpose of the Lebensborn program in an undated letter to Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel. “Official statistics show that there are still some 600,000 abortions annually in Germany. I have been concerned for years about the fact that many abortions occur among those who can be counted as the best sections of German society. I do not believe that we can tolerate a situation where annually hundreds of thousands of valuable girls and women are lost as mothers of German stock because they have illicit abortions whose effect is often to render them sterile … the aim of protecting German blood, however, has the highest priority.''
The SS flag flies above a nurse who pushes baby carriages at a Lebensborn home in Germany.
...
Children for Hitler
The Nazi Lebensborn Program was conceived to provide A supply of Aryan children for the future of the Third Reich.
This article appears in: April 2020
By Brent Douglas Dyck
By 1936, 18-year-old Hildegard Koch had reached a crossroads in her young life as she finished her schooling. Her leader in the local Bund Deutscher Mädel (the League of German Girls), gave her some advice: “If you don’t know what to do, why not give the Führer a child? What Germany needs more than anything is racially valuable stock.” It was the first time that Koch had heard of the Lebensborn Program.
In 1933, the year Hitler and the Nazis came to power, the birth rate in Germany was 14.7 per 1,000 people. This was less than half what it had been at the turn of the century. Additionally, there were hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in Germany every year. These two practices alarmed the Nazi regime. The Nazis needed children if they were to accomplish the two goals of Nazi ideology: conquer territory in the East and establish Aryan supremacy over Europe. Healthy young boys were needed to grow up to be soldiers in the German Army. Healthy young girls were needed to grow up and give birth to the next generation of super soldiers.
Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, founded the Lebensborn Program on December 12, 1935. Lebensborn means “the fountain of life.” The program actually provided three services: it gave pregnant women, either married or unmarried, a place to give birth to their babies and receive the best medical care; a meeting place for men and women of true Aryan stock to create babies for Adolf Hitler; and a place to raise children who had Aryan features after they had been kidnapped from their parents from foreign countries.
Himmler explained the main purpose of the Lebensborn program in an undated letter to Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel. “Official statistics show that there are still some 600,000 abortions annually in Germany. I have been concerned for years about the fact that many abortions occur among those who can be counted as the best sections of German society. I do not believe that we can tolerate a situation where annually hundreds of thousands of valuable girls and women are lost as mothers of German stock because they have illicit abortions whose effect is often to render them sterile … the aim of protecting German blood, however, has the highest priority.''
The SS flag flies above a nurse who pushes baby carriages at a Lebensborn home in Germany.
...
You know Trmp would be thrilled to be compared to a "strong" Russian leader. 
