U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, claimed in March of 2023 that child car seats are prohibiting many American families from having more children. Critics noted that birth rates are declining all around the world — including in countries where families don’t normally own any car at all — and that the cost of raising a family is often prohibitive by itself. U.S. car seat sizes are federally regulated, however, and those regulations do sometimes make it impossible to fit more than just two child car seats in a single vehicle.
Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor Timothy Carney reviews Vance’s comments and argues that American policymakers need to prioritize making life in the U.S. more family-friendly — including by reforming child car seat regulations.
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The following is an excerpt from the above video:
Vance was probably citing a 2020 study titled “Car Seats as Contraception.” It discussed state laws mandating car seats for children and infants. These laws went into effect at different times in different states, which created a natural experiment. The researchers studied how birth rates changed in states as the car seat mandates passed.
They found that birth rates dropped faster than expected after car seat mandates went into effect. This could, of course, just be a coincidence, but there’s evidence that the mandates caused birth rates to fall. The falling birth rates following car seat mandates were concentrated among married parents who already had two kids. That is, once you already have two car seats in the back row of a Toyota Camry, it’s hard, nearly impossible, to fit a third one. So unless you can afford a minivan or SUV, you can’t have a third baby.
