Abstract

In this research, I seek to analyze the reproductive policies set forth by the Donald J. Trump Administration in the year of 2025. In this analysis, I ask, what role stratified reproduction plays in the framing of the natalist policies by the news media. Secondly, I ask the following questions: 1) What reproductive health issues were centralized in the print news coverage of the 2025 Trump Administration? 2) Does the mainstream news media identify how President Trump’s policies differentially benefit and marginalize individuals in a manner that privileges some mothers over others? To answer these questions, I conducted a qualitative feminist critical discourse analysis of print news coverage from 2025. This research builds upon two bodies of knowledge—pronatalist government policies and symbolism of mother as state and citizen. The first body of knowledge, pronatalist government policies, consists of the history of natalist thought—both pro- and anti- —within the United States, Shellee Colen’s (1995) concept of “stratified reproduction,” and the simultaneous encouragement and discouragement of reproduction. In the second body of knowledge, symbolism of mother as state and citizen, I look to the United States and Europe for historical examples of pronatalist ideologies that depict mother as congruent with the nation. Childbirth incentives, medals for motherhood, and co-opting mothers as symbols of the state to further political goals are not new processes and have lasting historical legacies. Within the dataset, three themes emerged in how the news chose to frame President Trump’s reproductive politics priorities: President Trump’s natalist incentives, his promises of IVF access, and his policies regarding population management. The themes that emerge from this analysis reveal the framing of reproductive policies in the United States. I argue that the news coverage frames the reproductive policies in a way that reveals the stratified experiences in reproduction for individuals in the United States. In this analysis, reproductive policies are identified as the legislative and social discourse around reproductive rights and healthcare that have been passed by the Trump Administration.

Advisor

Laura Harrison

Committee Member

Angela Jill Cooley

Committee Member

Justin Biel

Date of Degree

2026

Language

english

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Program of Study

Gender and Women's Studies

Department

History and Gender Studies

College

Humanities and Social Sciences

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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