Get Hitched, Young Woman

[atommom]

Why have "out-of wedlock" pregnancies suddenly entered the national debate over President's Bush's astonishingly incompetent failure to rescue the poor in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina?

The answer is obvious: It's a great way to change the subject, and to remind us that in contemporary America, only unmarried mothers fail to demonstrate "personal responsibility."

Never mind that neither the Pentagon nor Congress can account for the $200 billion that have been spent waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or that George W. Bush has saddled the nation with a monstrous national debt. Never mind that he sent tens of thousands of young people to Iraq on cooked-up intelligence and that no government official has taken responsibility for the torture of prisoners. Or that Afghanistan is once again the world's leading exporter of narcotics. Never mind that Bush chose Michael D. Brown, an inexperienced and incompetent crony, to run FEMA, with disastrous consequences.

The Bush administration only believes in accountability and personal responsibility when it involves women's sexuality and their reproductive choices.

http://www.alternet.org/story/26033/

[rodeodance]

1. well--bill bennet suggestion could weigh in here also!!!

Moral Outrage Czar Bennet: Aborting Black Babies Would Lower Crime Rate

Thu Sep-29-05



http://mediamatters.org/items/200509280006

From the September 28 broadcast of Salem Radio Network's Bill Bennett's Morning in America:

CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't -- never touches this at all.

BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?

CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.

BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. I think as -- abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.

CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.

BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well --

CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.

BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

Audio clip:

http://mediamatters.org/static/audio/bennett-2005092800...

[Spangle]

6. I've got to say this....

We have to be HONEST about something..

WE have a group of people that don't want to fund welfare, etc.. because they THINK they are supporting ONLY/MAJORITY of minoritys. Totaly ignoring all the white folk on the dole.

What I just read has shock value to it. Next time I run into one of those "closet racist", I'm going to try this shock value. Just to see if they even CONSIDER that abortion might have some reason.

Then point out their whole problem in the first place IS RACISM.

[MADem]

2. Pay no attention to the dead soldiers, to the homeless and poor,

to the dislocated, to the unemployed, to the sick, the elderly, the least of our brethren!!!

Focus on that HUSSY with the BABY!!!!

[Totally Committed]

3. We, as a Party, have no right to be throwing stones, when

one of our own, possibly a candidate for '08, agrees with this premise. From that same article in the OP:

"Clueless liberals quickly accepted Lowry’s clever reframing of the problem. Nicholas Kristof embraced it as an 'excellent suggestion' in his New York Times column. Even former Sen. John Edwards, who attacked Bush for supporting the privileged, rather than the poor after Katrina, called on everyone to speak 'hard truths' about the out-of wedlock pregnancies that condemn so many people to perpetual poverty."

The "hard truths" about out-of wedlock pregnancies that condemn so many to "perpetual poverty" can also be addressed with proper sex education in schools, access to birth control for the sexually active, and a funded abortion choice for poor women (yes, abortion is legal, but the in the current atmosphere, there are few ways to get it funded for poor women.)

[MountainLaurel]

7. Another hard truth

Has to deal with American culture: For many Americans, you're not "really" a woman unless you've procreated, and in some circles there's still the belief that having babies is the only thing women are good for. If talk about one's future, dreams, and goals only includes discussions about babies and marriage, of course you're not going to think anything of getting pregnant at 16.

I was at a family reunion recently where it was obvious from the conversations going on that many attendees considered not having children at all worse than getting pregnant as a teenager.

[Demogal67]

14. So true

If they are worried about out-of-wedlock pregnancies now.....just wait till they overturn Roe, cuz they sure are trying ......They just don't get it. You can't tell women that they MUST have a kid they don't want and then expect them to get rich from doing that.

Basic common sense

[no_hypocrisy]

4. One more memo to GWB: F*** YOU, Sir!

It's not enough that women are not given access to healthcare and birth control via insurance, government clinics, public institutions, etc. It's not enough that without birth control, some women get pregnant and don't get abortions like you advocate. It's not enough that these pregnant women who give birth don't give away their flesh-and-blood to strangers and STRUGGLE in every to give them the best life within their means. Instead of applauding these heroines who are defined by YOUR standards, sir, you instead make them into individualized Hester Prynes with Scarlet A's on their bodices, and prescribe that they find a man, any man, preferably the biological father of the "bastard", and marry that man. Never mind that this man may beat your brains out or kill your child because it won't stop crying. No, you are not redeemed until you are legally made a slave to your husband.

I reiterate: FUCK YOU!

[abluelady]

5. It's Worse Than That

I recently heard a woman from the Heritage Foundation say that women should marry at 21 and then have babies. The family with a mom and dad is the only way to go. It is just another way for them to not care about people. If you're married and your spouse gets sick, it is up to you to care for them. If you're married you have two salaries. If you're married, yada, yada, yada. God forbid we should have availability to any social services under this administration.

Not to hurt anyone's feelings, but how many 21 year old women/men are ready for marriage. What do they want this institution of marriage to turn into--a mental institution? These people are nuts

[HockeyMom]

9. I have a 21 year old daughter

She is in her 3rd year of COLLEGE studying to be a teacher. Getting married NOW is the last thing on her mind. She wants to graduate, get a job, get her own apartment, etc. I can say that even when I was 21 more than 30 years ago, getting married when I was 21 was the LAST THING on my mind. Just being able to "make it on my own" WAS.

[cap]

10. then why is that woman not at home where SHE belongs...

not the rest of us women, just women at the Heritage Foundation who propagate this nonsense.

[jkappy]

8. Move to Manhattan, Brooklyn, Burlington, Vt

and other similar locales where the pressure to be married or have children is hardly existent. The percentage of single family households in Manhattan is 72%, in Brooklyn 71%, in Burlington 68%. Some towns have figures like 25-30%---stay away from them---very lonely and one-dimensional.

[Ally McLesbian]

11. Thank you...

I am in no mood to get hitched (straight, gay, or otherwise), and I simply find the pressure in my own waters intolerable.

FYI I live in a suburb of a supposedly blue county (Los Angeles County, California), but I couldn't have asked for a redder place. You have Republican immigrants from India, Korea, and Taiwan pressuring me to marry at all times. (Who the HELL said immigrants tend Democratic? Certainly NOT here.)

I should make a short drive over to West Hollywood, where gays and singles rule.

[bammertheblue]

12. young women do this a lot, I've seen.

I can't count the number of bright, compassionate, creative young women I've gone to school (college and grad school) who would say things like, "I want to get married and then stay home when I have kids". Not saying that staying home is WRONG, but it's like when it really came down to the wire, they'd throw everything away for that stupid ring. I also knew girls who had their whole life planned out, like "I'll graduate when I'm 22, then get married and have my first baby by 25". The first time I heard something like this I almost fell out of my chair. I thought she was kidding, but she wasn't.

When I was a little girl my mother would tell me that I wasn't "allowed" to get married till I was 30. I laughed, but she was a smart woman. (Still is, too!)

[liontamer]

13. welcome to du

I never wanted to get married till I was 30 either. I think a lot of women who say things like that just haven't found a career that motivates them. It's not throwing away everything if nothing in your life is that important to you. Raising children can be a rewarding experience. Many people hate their jobs, I think a lot of women are acknowledging that society offers them an alternative to the tedious jobs that young women in their early 20s often have. Just because they are making choices we would not make, doesn't mean their choices are invalid.