So, making Americans wear masks is a violation of personal freedom, but banning abortions isn’t? If it’s all about government staying out of your personal life and allowing you to make the best choice for you, then doesn’t that logic follow when it comes to abortion? Shouldn’t government stay out of the way and let women choose what’s best for them?
Those are just some of the questions that came to mind this week when news of a leaked draft suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion across the nation, hit the internet. The nation was left reeling. Pro-life and pro-choice proponents have spent days discussing and writing think pieces on what the future will look like for women’s reproductive rights.
That the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade came as no surprise to me. The landmark decision was made during the same year of my birth, so this fight about legalized abortion has been a political issue my whole life.
I’ve never understood — and probably never will — how those who are so against government interference in their personal lives are good with government interference when it comes to abortion.
But it’s all about the child, they say. The woman is making a decision that affects another living being who can’t make decisions for itself and needs protection.
OK. I’ll go with that. But isn’t that what adults do? Make decisions — both large and small — for children each and every day. And once children are born, don’t they need protecting?
While I definitely have much to say about a woman’s right to make decisions for herself, her body and her family, this column is about another issue. One of my biggest issues with the abortion debate is this idea of protecting children. For all the talk about when an embryo becomes a fetus and a fetus becomes a baby and protecting children inside the womb, we do a poor job of protecting children once they are born.
Don’t believe me?
About 17% of children live in poverty. That’s about 12 million, or about 1 in 7, children growing up poor, according to Kids Count Data Center from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This is happening in a country where the populace brags about having unlimited resources and wealth.
Data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation also found Black, Native American and Latino children are more likely to live in poverty when compared to white, Asian and Pacific Islander children.
According to the Center for American Progress, children under 5, the most vulnerable, experience poverty at a higher rate than other children.
Poverty has a significant impact on children in any number of ways. Hunger, illness, academic achievement, insecurity and instability are just some of the effects of poverty. Stress can also play a major role in the physical and behavioral health of a child. “Poverty means deprivation for children,” is how an article in the American Psychological Association newsletter summed it up. That’s exactly what growing up poor means.
How are so many children poor? Their parents are poor. And children are expensive as anyone who’s raising them will tell you — no matter the income level. The average cost to raise a child is more than $200,000 not including post-secondary education. Many people have children before they hit their peak earning years. A family of four earning an annual income of about $26,000 is classified as poor.
I hear the argument time and again that adults should be responsible for their actions. If they can’t afford to have children, they shouldn’t. Heck, that would be most of us if you read last week’s column. But that’s not realistic, and why are we punishing children for the “sins” of their parents — especially if we purport to care so much about them?
If we cared about children the way we say we do when debating about abortion, we wouldn’t have the crisis on our hands with an embarrassing number of children living in poverty. We wouldn’t have homeless children, sex trafficked children, abused, neglected, molested or raped children. We wouldn’t have children dying by homicide or suicide.
Because it’s not really about children at all. We don’t care about children. We care about forcing our ideology on others.
