The Geography of Fertility—Where Are the Babies?
October 30, 2024
Blue states are better for families — at least that’s what many academics and journalists contend. In their book “Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture,” law professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone argued that blue states have the liberal values and policies they believe make for strong and stable families. Likewise, Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell recently claimed that progressive family policies in Democratic states like Minnesota provide “evidence that one major party cares about children and families; and the other does not.”
Their assumption is that blue states are more family friendly in part because they boast progressive policies like universal pre-K, free school lunches and paid family leave that lend direct state support to the care of kids. Moreover, blue states’ commitment to higher education, an egalitarian family life and delayed family formation is also a plus in Cahn and Carbone’s book as they believe all this stabilizes family life in America.
