What's Behind the High Birth Rate of Women on Welfare?
Monday August 25, 2008
Why is the birth rate of women receiving welfare three times the birth rate of women not on welfare? My colleague Robert Longley, Guide to US Government Info, examines this in "Welfare Continues to Drive New Births".
Civil Liberties Guide Tom Head points out that conventional wisdom about 'welfare mothers' and higher birth rates ignores the fact that "lack of access to health care, including birth control (which is expensive, prescription-only, and not covered on most insurance plans), is at least as much of a culprit. Another: Women in desperate situations often want the emotional stability that a baby provides."
Comments
No, no, no, that is just to easy to say, lack of health care, birth control. I am not sure it is the stability the baby provides, but, the financial assistance they get with babies. Keep in mind these women are often low educated or are of the non educated mentality. They are suvivors and are very capable of finding means to survive. These women know exactly where to go to get any type of service they need, birth control, the Planned Parenthood, Medical, local county health facilities. In a society that teaches the story book fantasy of growing up getting married, having children and living happy ever after, many never get married but believe the guys and then get pregnant and it’s see ya, it was fun while it lasted.
The shame of this is that very often and this has not been examined much if at all, many women see Welfare as a husband, someone to take care of them. I would often say to women in my caseload (crude maybe)”oh, so husbands name is Welfare”. I would then provide an explanation for this comment and attempt to instill some self pride and provide resources for them. This would be a good study for a graduate student.
If you want to clean up welfare, then require the unwed mother to have her tube’s tied at birth and furnish the father’s name to help pay the child support that is his obligation to pay. If he is unable to pay then tie his tube’s also. When they get a good job and can afford to have more kids, then they can pay to have the proceedure reversed.
Birth control should me mandatory stipulation for anyone, male or female, who needs to turn to the government to to subsidize their lives. A medical card provides birth control at much less expense than having a child and the consequent medical costs for the child. Our constitution proclaims the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but nowhere does it read ‘at everyone else’s expense’. The statement “if you can’t feed them, don’t breed them” is completely appropriate and should be turned into a legal condition for any public assistance benefits.