CITIZEN: Religious liberty is the key to stronger families in Kentucky

As the second Trump administration begins, prioritizing the strength and health of families has become an important policy discussion nationally and also in many state capitols.

There are many considerations that go into creating a pro-family political environment, and policy actions that seek to decrease cost, lower tax burdens, or improve funding mechanisms for important services are not inherently bad ideas. However, these measures, while important, do not represent the most fundamental pro-family class of policies. Rather, if governing authorities want to be pro-family, the most foundational and most effective approach according to research is to be pro-religious liberty.

The theory behind recent efforts to lower taxes and increase spending related to the necessities of raising a child is that making child rearing more affordable will thereby provide greater encouragement for couples to have children. Looking strictly at financial calculations, that seems to be a prudent strategy. After all, adjusted for 2022 rates of inflation, the USDA estimates that a middle-income family of four is expected to pay $310,605 per child from birth to age 18.

As someone who became a new father within the last two years, let me state that measures to increase the affordability of raising children are important, and this article is not meant to suggest that such measures ought to be tossed out if greater religious liberty protections are put into place. However, as research from organizations like The Institute for Family Studies has clearly shown, social spending alone is not a sufficient remedy to declining birth rates, even within developed countries that have historically been known for strong fertility and social programs.

What does have a measurable positive impact on birth rates, according to IFS, is the influence of religion, with “people ages 18-49 who attend religious services regularly hav[ing] 0.27 more children than those who never, or practically never, attend.” This impact of religion cuts across denominations and traditions, and it exposes something through data that is already intuitively known through reason: issues of family formation and growth are inherently cultural, and even theological, in their foundation. It is this cultural foundation that tax cuts and spending increases are particularly poor at correcting.

As such, if the government seeks to encourage family formation and growth, it also must be willing to look outside of traditional financial mechanisms if it is to have a more substantial impact. The way forward rests in strengthening not primarily a family’s economic wellbeing, but in shoring up religious liberty protections for all citizens.

Here in Kentucky, that means updating our Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passing medical conscience protections for healthcare providers, protecting employees from DEI initiatives that would force them to violate their religious convictions on the inherent equality of all persons, and ensuring business owners are not subject to legal action for refusing to use their creative abilities to support what they deem to be immoral acts. Kentucky needs stronger and larger families, and we can lead the way on this issue. Further, we can do it without the massive budgetary impact of social spending. If the General Assembly takes decisive action on religious liberty this session, greater prosperity for families across the Commonwealth is within our reach.