U.S. President Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 3, 2026. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship as a constitutional right with its 5-4 ruling in Trump v. Barbara, a proposal was widely discussed in MAGA media outlets: forbidding pregnant women to enter the United States, including tourists from other countries who have booked return flights. A combination of liberals, progressives, centrists, Never Trump conservatives and libertarians are attacking the proposal as an example of how extreme the MAGA movement is, but in a conversation for The New Republic's podcast, "The Daily Blast," host Greg Sargent and his guest, journalist Sarah Posner, warned that the idea needs to be taken seriously.
Posner, known for her work with Talking Points Memo, told Sargent, "What these people are proposing is the idea that women would be potentially sterilized if they wanted to come to America. That's insane. Or testing women, giving women pregnancy tests before they come. I mean, it's just so bananas. I can't even believe that they're not ashamed to talk about it on TV."
Sargent noted specific quotes coming from Trump supporters.
Far-right MAGA attorney Mike Davis argued, "We need to get all illegals out of our country fast, and we need to start with birthing-aged women." And the Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro said, "If you're coming in six months pregnant, we should not give you a four-month visa. We should give you a one-month visa and then kick your a– – out, right?"
SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly, formerly of Fox News, commented, "Would there be the possibility of cracking down on pregnant aliens who are coming over here — revoking visas, pregnancy tests, even? I mean, how far could we go with that?"
Posner told Sargent, "Well, for one thing, MAGA has always been very interested in policing women's bodies, whether it's preventing them from having an abortion, preventing them from accessing birth control, or in this case, preventing them from being in the United States when they go into labor, right? Like, all of these things are about making sure that they have control over women's bodies and women's reproductive freedom. So, that is completely on brand for them, to be obsessed with this."
Posner continued, "And then you add that to their obsession about immigrant, quote-unquote, 'invasions' — that these invasions of immigrants are making the United States less pure, are contaminating us. And so, you have a movement that's, at its core, disgusted by women's bodies. And that's why they want to control them. And here they add to that layer of disgust by talking about immigrant women as being — or, I mean, not just immigrant women, women in general, like women who are coming to the United States to visit family or go see the Empire State Building — you know, that they're talking about them as being conniving and dirty and wanting to basically defraud America."
Posner argued that although requiring women who enter the U.S. from other countries to undergo pregnancy tests would require a lot of resources, that doesn't mean MAGA Republicans won't try it.
Sargent told Posner, "I think you really nailed it when you said that they're going to essentially want women to pee in cups at airports now, because that really captures all the craziness of it — the misogyny, the hostility to women's bodily functions and so forth."