The Heritage Foundation has released a comprehensive report titled “Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years,” outlining policy proposals aimed at reversing declining marriage and birth rates in the United States. Key recommendations include eliminating marriage penalties within welfare programs and implementing meaningful work requirements for recipients. The plan also suggests financial incentives such as a $2,500 Newlywed Early Starters Trust (NEST) fund for couples marrying before age 30. Furthermore, Heritage advocates for extending the adoption tax credit to cover newborns and introducing a $2,000 credit for parents providing at-home care for young children. Heritage President Kevin Roberts anticipates the report will spur significant national dialogue and influence discussions within the U.S. Congress.
about 2 months ago
The Heritage Foundation released a report titled “Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years” on January 12, 2026, to address declining marriage and birth rates.1 2 3
Led by President Kevin Roberts, the report is co-authored by Roger Severino, Jay Richards, Emma Waters, Delano Squires, Rachel Sheffield, and Robert Rector.1 2 3
Roberts described it as Heritage's first major family policy initiative, aiming to spark national conversation and congressional action.1 2 3
The report highlights a 40% national nonmarital birth rate and 25% of children living with single parents, the highest globally.1 2 3
Fertility declines threaten to make deaths outpace births, turning families from abundance to scarcity.1 2 3
It emphasizes promoting a culture of marriage and intact families over complex federal programs.1 2 3
Proposals include eliminating marriage penalties in welfare programs and imposing meaningful work requirements.1 2 3
Financial incentives feature a $2,500 Newlywed Early Starters Trust (NEST) for those marrying by age 30.1 2 3
Other measures: Apply the $17,670 adoption tax credit to newborns for married parents and a $2,000 credit per child under 5 for at-home care.1 2 3
The report urges President Trump to issue executive orders ensuring federal actions support marriage and family while blocking discriminatory ones.1 2 3
Roberts expressed confidence in Trump administration support, citing positive rhetoric on the "civilizational problem."1 2 3
Capitol Hill discussions went well, mostly with Republicans, though Democrats showed knee-jerk resistance to welfare reforms.1 2 3
Roberts hopes for center-left engagement via social science lens and state-level competition on family incentives.1 2 3
Roberts, former Wyoming Catholic College president, recently apologized for a video defending Tucker Carlson's interview with Nick Fuentes.1 2 3
The report positions Heritage as offering actionable policies amid these challenges.1 2 3
How should Catholic doctrine inform state support for marriage?
Catholic doctrine presents marriage as a divine institution rooted in natural law and elevated by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament, fundamentally shaping how the state should approach its support. The Church teaches that genuine state backing for marriage promotes the common good by fostering stable families, virtuous citizens, and societal harmony, while rejecting any redefinition or undermining of its essential properties: unity between one man and one woman, indissolubility, openness to procreation, and mutual sanctification. Drawing from papal encyclicals, this analysis explores marriage's nature, its societal fruits, the proper role of civil authority, and cautions against contrary ideologies.
At its core, Catholic teaching affirms that God established marriage from creation as the union of one man and one woman, marked by unity and perpetuity, for the propagation of the human race and the mutual good of spouses. Pope Leo XIII explains: "God... decreed that this husband and wife should be the natural beginning of the human race, from whom it might be propagated and preserved by an unfailing fruitfulness throughout all futurity of time." Christ confirmed this in the Gospel, declaring it indissoluble: "What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
As a sacrament, Christian marriage confers grace that strengthens spouses, families, and society. It mirrors Christ's unbreakable bond with the Church, with the husband as head loving his wife sacrificially, and the wife submitting in mutual honor. The state, informed by this doctrine, must recognize marriage's natural law basis—accessible to reason apart from faith—to uphold laws protecting its integrity, as civil effects like inheritance and child welfare flow from this foundation. Interfering with these ends, such as through policies promoting sterile unions or easy dissolution, violates human nature and divine order.
The Church emphasizes marriage's profound contributions to public welfare, positioning the family as the "cornerstone of all society and government." Stable marriages lighten spousal burdens through faithful love and shared goods, educate children in virtue, temper parental authority with divine example, and produce citizens reverent toward God and just rulers. Pope Pius XI elaborates on indissolubility's fruits: it guarantees spousal security, defends chastity, ensures dignified mutual aid, and sustains child-rearing over years, yielding "virtuous life and habits of integrity" for the nation. "What the families and individuals are, so also is the State, for a body is determined by its parts."
Pope Leo XIII links this to state expectations: from conformable marriages, society gains "a race of citizens animated by a good spirit and filled with reverence and love for God." Even in modern contexts, Pope Francis underscores the family as faith's first setting, where stable man-woman unions reflect God's love, enable procreation, and entrust new life as a divine mystery. State support—through tax incentives for families, protections for stay-at-home parents, or policies favoring natural family structures—thus aligns with Catholic doctrine by safeguarding these benefits against individualism or economic pressures.
Civil authority retains rights over "civil effects" of marriage, such as legal recognition and regulation, but must defer to the Church on sacramental validity and never circumscribe marriage's God-given ends: procreation and fidelity. Pope Leo XIII insists no human law can override the "primeval right of marriage" or its mandate to "Increase and multiply." The state should actively defend indissolubility, as Christ restored it against repudiation, conferring benefits like moral renewal, family strength, and civil prosperity.
Pope Pius XII envisions Christian families as havens of trust, where children honor parents and all yield to God's will, countering querulousness or ingratitude. Policies informed by doctrine might include legal barriers to no-fault divorce, promotion of prenuptial catechesis, or family wage systems echoing Rerum Novarum's legacy in Centesimus Annus, prioritizing worker dignity to sustain families. The Church tempers authority in homes, ensuring obedience without excess, a model for state governance.
Catholic doctrine vigilantly opposes assaults on marriage, such as socialism's erosion of paternal authority and family stability by dissolving religious wedlock. Revilers denying Church teaching fail against universal testimony to marriage's origin. Modern echoes include ideologies treating marriage as mere convention, ignoring its vocational call to sanctification. States must restrict "base unions opposed to reason and nature," punishing vices while honoring matrimony's dignity. Pope Pius XI reaffirms Arcanum Divinae's full force against such errors.
In summary, Catholic doctrine urges states to support marriage by legally enshrining its natural-sacramental essence, incentivizing its practice, and defending it from dissolution or redefinition, yielding individual happiness, familial virtue, and societal flourishing. This fidelity to God's design ensures the family remains the bedrock of the common good, as popes from Leo XIII to Francis consistently teach.