Child car seat regulations might actually be impacting family planning

Oct 03, 2024

Timothy Carney Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

By Straight Arrow News

U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, claimed in March of 2023 that child car seats are prohibiting many American families from having more children. Critics noted that birth rates are declining all around the world — including in countries where families don’t normally own any car at all — and that the cost of raising a family is often prohibitive by itself. U.S. car seat sizes are federally regulated, however, and those regulations do sometimes make it impossible to fit more than just two child car seats in a single vehicle.

Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor Timothy Carney reviews Vance’s comments and argues that American policymakers need to prioritize making life in the U.S. more family-friendly — including by reforming child car seat regulations.

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The following is an excerpt from the above video:

Vance was probably citing a 2020 study titled “Car Seats as Contraception.” It discussed state laws mandating car seats for children and infants. These laws went into effect at different times in different states, which created a natural experiment. The researchers studied how birth rates changed in states as the car seat mandates passed.

They found that birth rates dropped faster than expected after car seat mandates went into effect. This could, of course, just be a coincidence, but there’s evidence that the mandates caused birth rates to fall. The falling birth rates following car seat mandates were concentrated among married parents who already had two kids. That is, once you already have two car seats in the back row of a Toyota Camry, it’s hard, nearly impossible, to fit a third one. So unless you can afford a minivan or SUV, you can’t have a third baby.

J Yes, it’s true, the fact checkers discovered. JD, Vance really did say that crazy thing about car seats and birth rates.

Snopes.com. The once respected fact checker, dragged up the video of Vance’s comments. He really did say that car seat mandates make Americans less likely to have babies. Why would he say such a thing? Well, for starters, it’s true. Second, it was relevant. Third, the baby bus is the biggest story of the next 30 years, and all policymakers should be talking about ways to make America more family friendly.

Vance was probably citing a 2020 study titled car seats as contraception. It discussed state laws mandating car seats for children and infants. These laws went into effect at different times in different states, which created a natural experiment. The researchers studied how birth rates changed in states as the car seat mandates passed, they found that birth rates dropped faster than expected after car seat mandates went into effect. This could, of course, just be a coincidence, but there’s evidence that the mandates caused birth rates to fall. The falling birth rates following car seat mandates were concentrated among married parents who already had two kids. That is, once you already have two car seats in the back row of a Toyota Camry, it’s hard, nearly impossible, to fit a third one. So unless you can afford a minivan or SUV, you can’t have a third baby.

But why was the senator from Ohio talking about infant car seats? The video in question comes from a transportation committee hearing a labor union was lobbying to ban lap infants on flights. They wanted to force parents to buy a plane ticket for newborns and put the newborn in a special airplane car seat. This is exactly the sort of family unfriendly regulation that makes raising kids so much harder than it needs to be.

Vance was right to oppose this new airplane regulation. In fact, lawmakers should reconsider their car seat mandates too.

New Jersey’s law requires three and a half year olds to be in those big, bulky car seats with five point harnesses, so parents need to dig their hands under the kid’s butts into some sort of slurry of goldfish toddler saliva and butt sweat, yank out the buckle and then get the two other straps.

Unless this regulation is proven to save lives compared to a regular buckle and booster seat, it’s a massive pointless annoyance to families, and with birth rates at record lows and falling we should be doing what we can to make America a little less family unfriendly. I.