In the days after the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship as the law of the land, an enraged Trump administration began rigorously investigating new ways to crack down on "birth tourism." And to do so, they have floated an alarming option: a potential ban on pregnant foreigners.
But let's back up. What is birth tourism? Technically, the term refers to pregnant women who come to the United States solely to give birth and obtain US citizenship for their children. But it's also a bogeyman; even the conservative anti-immigration Center for Immigration Studies estimates that there are 26,000 such births annually at most. Which adds up to less than 1 percent of all babies born in the US in a year.
In other words, it's as much of a "problem" as the right's screaming about voter fraud. That, of course, hasn't stopped the Trump administration from floating a ban on pregnant visitors. But what would that even look like? Pregnancy tests at airports? Border officials taking OB-GYN classes?
It might sound ridiculous. But I talked to experts who warn against dismissing such measures. Just consider our long history of barring foreigners over HIV, the forced sterilization of Black and indigenous groups, and the simple fact that something like a ban on pregnant foreigners would neatly combine two of Trump's biggest priorities: restricting immigration and targeting women. As a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute told me, "If you’re determined that this is the obsession you have, cost doesn’t matter."
—Inae Oh
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