Pro-birth activist mom struggles with squirming baby during live CNN interview
Self-described "pronatalist" mom Simone Collins had some challenges discussing her desire to help the Trump administration promote a new baby boom as she juggled her squirming daughter live on CNN Thursday.
"By the way, Indy's joining us, your child, we should note," said anchor Pamela Brown after asking Simone to explain the movement she and husband Malcolm have embraced.
As Simone started to answer, the baby let out a squeal.
"Oh, my goodness!" Simone exclaimed while shifting the baby.
Simone went on to say that the movement hopes to lift "a lot of regulatory bloat" that makes parents' lives "more difficult, and supporting a culture in which families are accepted."
The Collins's say they've drafted "executive orders" for President Trump to sign regarding pronatalist issues that don't include provisions for things like more medical benefits or parental leave.
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"We haven't seen much evidence that, for example, changing parental leave or providing more medical benefits has an effect ultimately on birth rates," Simone said, as Brown asked if she thought there should be more parental leave.
"I don't, actually, because it has a lot of adverse effects that are not accounted for," Simone said. "It could even cause organizations to discriminate against hiring women because they know that they have to pay for generous parental leave, and they may be more subconsciously likely to promote and select men or women who don't plan on having any kids at all, which would ultimately put parents at more of a disadvantage."
Simone claimed that the answer for working parents who want to have more kids "is allowing for more generous work-from-home policies, which really allow families to both have kids and work really easily without having to choose one path."
Simone said she and Malcolm hope to have as many kids as possible while she can.
"We put our money where our mouth is," Simone said. "I have about a kid a year our. We have four kids — fifth is on the way, and our fifth is five years old. So we want to have as many kids as we can. And because I have to have C-sections, that basically means, until I lose my uterus in a surgery, I'm going to keep having kids."