Add all of this up, and it’s not surprising that women’s faith in US institutions is at an all-time low—a factor that experts explicitly link to their desire to leave the country, along with the above factors. It’s not just that giving birth is dangerous; it’s that it’s so much more dangerous and potentially traumatic than it needs to be. It’s not just that child care costs a lot; it’s that it would be entirely feasible to make it affordable, as other nations have demonstrated. The result is a sense not just that things are bad but that America as a whole does not care about women and does not care about mothers. The awareness of institutional betrayal—and beyond that, being unhelped and unheld by society at large—naturally animates a desire to seek something different and better. It’s no wonder that so many American women of reproductive age want to leave this country. Perhaps the real mystery is why more of us aren’t fleeing.