Should the American Solidarity Party be the Free Birth Party?

GK Chesterton tells the story of a man who embarks on a long journey to discover new lands. Upon arriving, he plants the flag of his homeland and claims the unknown lands—only to discover that he had arrived back home and planted his flag where he had started.   

So, guess what? A couple of weeks ago, I was reading speeches of Abraham Lincoln and saw a parallel between the anti-slavery movement then and the pro-life movement now. In the 1840s, a new political party started; its core idea was to offer free land to promote slave-free farming. Isn’t it time now to offer no-cost childbirth care to promote pro-life values? Wouldn’t that be a great idea for the platform of the American Solidarity Party (ASP)?   

Then I reread the party platform. Here’s the bullet point I found, already there in the ASP platform. 

• Pregnancy, childbirth, and neonatal care should be fully covered by all healthcare plans so that no family need worry about the expenses of bringing a child into the world. 

Just like the man in Chesterton’s story, I had a new appreciation for how great this party is after discovering it again for the first time! 

The complex cost of childbirth is fresh in my mind. Last week, I got a letter from a collection agency saying I owed $1,075.94 from six and a half years ago when my youngest daughter was born. My insurance company disagreed with the ambulance company on a charge, and I’m stuck in the middle. I can’t imagine why a non-emergency, 5-mile ride costs thousands of dollars. But I do know that new parents should not have to deal with surprising and extravagant costs. It seems most parents in America have similar stories dealing with big business health care for childbirth.   

Unfortunately, pro-life, fully funded healthcare is not likely. The two major parties have wrongheaded principles against it. One party wants free abortion, and the other wants privately funded health care. 

“Privately funded” means insurance-financed health care, which is at odds with fully funded childbirth. Insurance companies are big businesses, and they are often hired by other big businesses. As profit-driven companies, they are incentivized not to pay the bills. That’s the opposite of full funding.  

In addition, private healthcare companies know childbirth costs will be negotiable. That means that initial prices can be exorbitant. We cannot know the actual cost of childbirth until months after the birth itself. That’s when healthcare companies and insurance companies finish their negotiating. Healthcare companies aim high while insurance companies aim low. The actual cost gives way to an artificial cost, and full funding falls by the wayside.  

The other party pushes an agenda directly opposed to life: abortion is safe, legal, and paid for by the government. It’s proudly spelled out in their party platform. Initially, the platform said abortion should be “rare”, but not anymore. Now abortion is like Tylenol, except Tylenol is not free. If childbirth were free, it might well displace abortion. 

In the Abraham Lincoln speeches, I saw a similar political situation in the 1840s. The Democratic party wanted to expand legal slavery. The Whig party wanted to limit slavery, but not outlaw it. No party stood for ending slavery! With those options, it looked as though slavery would continue and possibly become legal throughout the United States. 

Instead, anti-slavery people from both parties banded together to form the Free Soil Party. The name came from their proposal to give away land to farm without slaves. This policy directly challenged the reality that wealthy people who could buy a lot of land would also buy slaves. More importantly, Americans now had the option to vote to end slavery. The success of the Free Soil Party in 1848 changed the conversation, eventually leading to the formation of the Republican party, Lincoln becoming President and the end of slavery in the United States. 

The Free Soil Party of 1848 never won an election, but it moved our country in a direction the major parties would not have gone. If good people had not acted, slavery would have been further entrenched.   

Taking a page from the Free Soil party, perhaps today’s "free soil" for pro-lifers could be free childbirth. Currently in the United States, even with assistance from the government or insurance, having a baby costs thousands of dollars (possibly more if you’re married because of less available assistance). Mothers, moreover, have no idea what the cost will be until months after the baby is born.    

Some people from both parties are taking a stand. Americans for Life and Pro-life Democrats are calling for free childbirth. This seems like a winning position. Does anyone want expensive, bureaucratically complex childbirth? Don’t we need a new party to propose this common-sense direction that will change the conversation? The American Solidarity Party has a lot of great common-sense ideas about the family, immigration, the environment, economics, and social justice.   

And for the upcoming election cycle, perhaps we should consider ourselves the Free Birth party. 

Works Cited 

Orr, Robert. “Yes, Birth Should Be Free.” Institute for Family Studies, 8 February 2023, https://ifstudies.org/blog/yes-birth-should-be-free. Accessed 15 February 2023. 

Velasquez, Vikki. “How Much Does It Cost to Have a Baby in America?” Investopedia, 23 January 2023, https://www.investopedia.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-have-a-baby-in-america-6745508. Accessed 15 February 2023 

American Solidarity Party. American Solidarity Party. 20 Feb 2023. https://www.solidarity-party.org/platform/