A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate last week would make childbirth free. This follows a recent proposal by the Trump administration to provide $5,000 in financial assistance to young families. The bill is inspired by a 2023 white paper released by Americans United for Life in partnership with Democrats for Life of America. Prior to being introduced in Congress, the policy had received influential support, including from JD Vance and the National Catholic Register. The Supporting Healthy Moms and Babies Act was introduced by a group of otherwise politically divided senators. Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia, once Hillary Clinton’s running mate, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a progressive among Democrats’ many 2020 presidential candidates, joined Republicans Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Josh Hawley of Missouri, a noted populist leader. Hyde-Smith’s office touted the bill as preventing “cost-sharing requirements for prenatal, childbirth, neonatal, perinatal, or postpartum health care” for mothers with private insurance.  In practice, this means that the bill would amend the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) to reclassify childbirth as “essential healthcare,” therefore requiring private insurance to cover 100 percent of childbirth-related costs, including prenatal care, without any copays or deductibles. The Niskanen Center estimates a $30 annual cost to Americans for this expansion of coverage. In a show of Obamacare’s weakness in supporting families, “essential” treatments insurers have been mandated to pay for include birth control, but provide no support for having children. CBS reports that half of Americans cannot afford a surprise $1,000 medical expense. Women are also significantly more likely to have medical debt than men, with 48 percent of women and 34 percent of men carrying such debt. Additionally, the typical out-of-pocket cost of maternal care and childbirth for mothers with private health insurance is approximately $3,000. One in six mothers pays over $5,000 out-of-pocket for these services. In extreme cases (such as mothers without insurance facing complications), these costs can be as high as $24,000. (RELATED: Rage Against the (Healthcare) Machine) Thus, Hawley connected his support of the legislation directly to his pro-life principles, declaring that “being pro-family means fostering an economy that makes it feasible to raise a child.” Hyde-Smith made a similar connection, stating that she hopes that through this bill, “more families will be encouraged to embrace the beautiful gift and responsibility of parenthood.”  Neither Democratic senator introducing the legislation made wider references to the importance of building families, instead focusing narrowly on the value of lowering costs. Perhaps notable, however, is that Gillibrand’s statement referenced “women.” This represents a departure from past statements from her office that, despite Gillibrand’s emphasis on claims of being a feminist, have made use of the term “birthing people,” erasing women by sacrificing motherhood on the altar of woke language. The bill has drawn a wide array of support, Vox reported, from both pro-life organizations, including Americans United for Life, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Students for Life, and Live Action, to typically left-leaning groups, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association, and the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs. No official statements have been released by the Trump administration, but then-Sen. JD Vance has in the past praised the idea, including in a 2023 X post. Several small pro-abortion organizations have even weighed in positively, such as the organization Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity. Nonetheless, Planned Parenthood and other leaders of the anti-life movement have declined to endorse the bill. Elizabeth Bruenig, a pro-choice writer who nonetheless carries moral qualms about abortion, authored an article in The Atlantic proposing free childbirth. Vox reported that Bruenig quit X after the degree of personal vituperations she received from left-wing activists. There has also been some debate in conservative circles over the particulars of free birth.  The Institute for Family Studies ran two articles covering each side after the 2023 policy white paper was released. The piece arguing against covering childbirth and prenatal care cited the potential for worse bureaucracy and instead argued for cash-focused support for new families outside the bureaucratic structures of health insurance. A critical editorial in National Review argued that expanding free healthcare to childbirth would harmfully promote “socialized medicine” that can “quickly melt down.” The Heritage Foundation also opposes the proposal, arguing that it would lead to worse service by weakening market mechanisms and constitutes an “unjust wealth transfer.” Further, it notes that many countries with free childbirth, such as Japan and Norway, have still suffered from rapidly declining birth rates. Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute responded to this point in a paper earlier this year. Levin argued that free childbirth is a positive regardless of birth rates on the grounds that it represents an “achievable starting point for the next generation of pro-family policies.”  With the Supporting Healthy Moms and Babies Act now introduced, it remains to be seen whether it will garner enough support for passage or even make it through the labyrinth of procedure to a vote. With debate on both the left and right, votes are far from certain. READ MORE from Shiv Parihar: Conservatives Seek to Reconquer Mainline Churches Trump Down, Stalin Up in Moscow The post Conservatives Debate Merits of Making Childbirth Free appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

New Jersey’s own Tommy Paul and Maryland’s own Frances Tiafoe made it into the second week, and thus the quarter-finals, of the French Open. This is good news for American tennis, considering no American man since Andre Agassi in 1999 has won this, the most hoity-toity of the majors (aka the Slam circuit) on the racquet tour if not the most fun (that would be the one in Melbourne), nor the most venerable (that would be Wimbledon, in London’s SW19), and surely not the bestest and the greatest, in Queens NY. Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, and the spirited and lovely girls have a big week ahead. Still, it’s the Slam circuit, where the men play best-of-five and the money is substantial. The Internationaux, to go by the tournament’s official name, is an old love affair between France and America; its home is on the avenue Gordon-Bennett, named for one of this great city’s favorite Americans, the sportsman scion who first made it over the Atlantic while engaged in a sailing race, though there was a rumor, some call it a canard, he was high-tailing or rather high-winding it because he had peed on his fiancee’s grand piano at her family’s mansion in Newport R.I., to the considerable annoyance of his father, Gordon Bennett Sr., founder of the New York Herald, which did not report the story. The young playboy redeemed himself by becoming one of the first of the great sports entrepreneurs as well as the publisher of what became the Paris Herald-Tribune, at one time the best American-language newspaper not published in America. He gave good parties. However, weak as our men’s recent record has been at Paris, it can at least be said the French have not done any better, with their last win being Yannick Noah’s in 1983. If it is any consolation, and I suppose it must be, the women of both countries have done rather better — Serena Williams won in 2002, ‘13, and ‘15 — and there has been some success in doubles. At any rate, Paul and Tiafoe both got through in straight sets, and it is by no means unlikely either or both will move on into the semis and beyond next week, and among the young ladies, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, Madison Keys — who won Australia in January — and Hailey Baptiste all are making great runs. This is an important time for the red, white, and blue, better than the bleu-blanc-rouge. Actually, the French were not paying as much attention as you would expect. After all, they built the park where the event takes place, the Stade Roland-Garros, for the very purpose of ending, mid-1920s, American dominance in tennis. They took over the leadership and held it for several years thanks to a team known as the Four Musketeers, one of whom, Robert Lacoste, went big in elegant casual wear after he retired, also introducing some of the first metal racquets toward the end of his successful business career. This is why when you say it’s time for Roland, or I’ll be at Roland, at this time of year, most French persons, even if they never play tennis, know what you are talking about, it is an important date on the national calendar, and they are friendly to American visitors. French Soccer Riot Except that this year, the local football team was in the Champions League final against a side from Milan. Paris-Saint-Germain, as the club is called, had never won this tournament, which is rather like a Euro Series, the best teams in Europe, a big deal. When on Sunday night PSG crushed Inter Milan, 5-0, a rare score in a low-score sport, the fans went wild. Did they celebrate with champagne, cheers, man-and-woman hooha, and other normal expressions of joy and vitality? No. Rioting and rampaging hit Paris — the match took place in Munich, so the rioters were not ticket holders — leaving cars burned, windows smashed, cops hurt, and several people dead. What happened? Well, this is a serious matter, and speculation without evidence is not the proper function of journalism; but can the French police and security agencies avoid taking under consideration that PSG is owned not by a French equivalent of George Steinbrenner but by Qatar’s top sheiks (with an American group as minority owners). This is the same lot of oil billionaires who are funding Hamas. More facts are bound to come out. But consider this, too: French president Emmanuel Macron was out of the country during the week instead of showing himself, as befits a head of state, at Roland-Garros. He was in Asia, selling Airbus airplanes. He made a successful pitch to the Vietnamese, who are partial to Boeing aircraft but may have become alarmed when the U.S. president indicated his displeasure with our leading manufacturer. If he could not get his order in on time and in a fit of impatience took a pre-owned model from Qatar — Qatar! — what sort of deal could they count on? President Trump can still make a quick trip to Hanoi and sell some of his family’s bitcoins or whatever the currency is called, since he appears to be giving up on the dollar as well as Boeing. It is not clear how this will create American jobs, nor improve American chances at the tennis majors. Which is okay; Americans know they must count on their own efforts, not rely on a distant government in Washington, D.C. Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, and the spirited and lovely girls have a big week ahead, and somewhere up there in the stands (or boxes) of the center court at the famous old stadium (recently renovated and equipped with a roof), Gordon Bennett is smiling down on them, “it’s Paris, boys and girls, enjoy!” READ MORE from Roger Kaplan: Italian Open Tennis: Faith and Racquets in Rome A Free Africa for Africans The post Americans Advance at French Open appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

On March 11, 2011, Japan faced one of the most devastating natural disasters in its history—a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that unleashed a catastrophic tsunami, claiming nearly 20,000 lives and leaving countless others homeless and desperate for aid. In the chaos that followed, an unexpected group stepped forward to provide immediate relief: the Yakuza, Japan’s notorious ...

When discussing World War II machinery, iconic images of tanks, bombers, and battleships often dominate the narrative. Yet, beneath the roar of cannons and engines, a collection of lesser-known machines quietly influenced the war’s trajectory in remarkable ways. These understated technological marvels—ranging from compact communication devices to specialized engineering vehicles—provided critical solutions to complex wartime ...

June is a pretty interesting ? month…

from We Are Change: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

by Ron Unz, The Unz Review: On May 15-17, the libertarian Mises Institute hosted a “Revisionist History of War Conference” at its Auburn headquarters. I was one of sixteen speakers invited to make a presentation, with my topic being “The True History of World War II.” I thought my thirty-five minute talk went well, and the audio version is […]

What a weekend of MotoAmerica Mission King of the Baggers racing between rivals Harley-Davidson x Dynojet and Indian Motorcycle x […] The post Harley and Indian Drama at King of the Baggers Road America appeared first on Hot Bike Magazine.