Here’s One Thing Project 2025 Gets Right: We Need More Focus on Fathers

The Heritage Foundation’s Presidential Transition Project, also known as Project 2025, has been all over the news these days for its sweeping policy proposals to reform the federal government. 

Its suggestions are not without controversy, though one worth highlighting that would improve healthcare outcomes in the U.S. is to put a much-needed spotlight on the importance of fatherhood. 

This is a difficult topic to discuss – there are a number of reasons why a nuclear family dynamic is either not possible or not ideal. But the data is quite clear that when it comes to health care the mother-father-children can have tremendous benefits.

The benefits of father involvement in health care starts in the womb. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, pregnant women are 1.5 times more likely to receive first-trimester prenatal care when the father is involved, which can lead to reductions in prematurity and infant mortality.

The same study showed that having active fathers during infancy can reduce both mental health and behavioral issues in children. And at three years old, father-child communication plays a significant and unique role in advanced language development.

For the majority of my dental career, mothers supervised their children’s dental care and appointments.  But with the evolving shifts in our workforce and stay at home fathers becoming more common, we see fathers playing this role more often than in the past.  I expect this change to continue moving forward.  

Don’t get me wrong. This in no way diminishes the role mothers play. Any father with any sense realizes immediately that moms are champions and are the most important person when it comes to raising children. But for all the tremendous work mothers do, studies continuously show the importance of fathers.

Besides the direct benefits, fathers play an important role in improving health care indirectly.

Fatherless families are four times more likely to live in poverty and children in fatherless homes are significantly more likely to carry guns and deal drugs than their peers living with both parents.

Children from single-parent families are twice as likely to suffer from issues of mental health as those with married parents, while single fathers and mothers are far more susceptible to issues of mental health.

Over the years, the government has done a lot to support families living outside the traditional mother-father-children dynamic. This makes sense for a number of reasons and in general should not be disputed.

But more should be done to promote fatherhood and the family dynamic that all of the data suggests is ideal. I say that without any judgment on parents who chose other options for raising children.

The government should do more to incentivize marriage through the tax code, provide marriage education and counseling programs, offer greater childcare support, offer housing assistance for young couples considering starting families and adjust social policies to avoid penalizing marriage.

I’ve been married for more than 30 years and have one adult child. And even with a stable environment and career, I know how difficult both marriage and parenting can be. And, again, I realize that in some instances marriage and having the father around might actually be a terrible idea.

But there are plenty of instances where having an active father is possible and not a bad idea and we as a society can and should do more to promote this if we sincerely want to improve the American healthcare system.