One favorite meme of the forced-birth crowd is “We should save every fetus because you never know which one will grow up to find a cure for some horrible disease, or write the Great American Novel, or change the course of history.” Yeah, right.
They love to hound reproductive rights activists with, “What if the kid grows up to be another Lincoln or Mozart or Einstein or Reverend King?” Of course they never ponder whether any of the babies they “rescue” will grow up to be another Hitler, or Stalin, or Caligula, or Idi Amin, or Pol Pot, or Chairman Mao. Or another Charles Manson, or Ted Bundy, or John Wayne Gacy, or Timothy McVeigh, or Jeffrey Dahmer. No, they never think about an innocent little tot growing up to be a monster.
The stale “What if so-and-so’s mother had an abortion” male bovine solid bodily waste ejecta has more problems, too. How is the next Great Artist or Great Scientist or Great Leader or Discoverer of a Cure for Some Nasty Malady supposed to become a historical figure in the first place without the proper support network? Abraham Lincoln was born into poverty, but a) he was wanted and loved, b) he had some extraordinary luck, and c) the USA wasn’t waging a war on the poor while he was growing up.
In order to develop their brains so they are Super Scientist/Leader/Artist material, those children require a great start in life. They need housing so they can feel secure and have protection from the elements. They need nutritious food so their brains will develop. They need love and support from their families. They need stimulating toys, books and activities to make them interested in reaching their potential and contributing to society. No child who lives in abject poverty and experiences hunger and malnutrition for the first several years of life is going to grow up to be the Next Big Name.
For starters, how about making sure every womb-bearer has access to affordable prenatal and perinatal care? Pregnant folks need not just proper nutrition, but also the right medical attention, especially if they suffer complications. If you’re in the family way, you need to take special care of yourself to give your little cherub the best possible start in life.
Giving birth is expensive in this country. Even a regular, uncomplicated birth can cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars; if any problems arise, up goes the bill. Do NOT get me started on how our for-profit health “care” system stiffs patients, or how insurance companies d*ck their customers around! If you want to force everybody who gets pregnant to give birth, but deny the proper medical attention to increase the chances of a healthy birth, you are the worst kind of hypocrite.
Secondly, too many US residents, citizens and immigrants alike, lack access to proper nutrition. Food is getting more and more expensive, due to not only increasing costs to produce and transport it, but also because droughts and changing weather patterns are causing crop failures. The minimum wage has not increased in 13 years, while the cost of everything has gone up and up and up. Nutritious food costs more than junk food. If you have $8 to spend on dinner and four hungry mouths to feed, and a hamburger costs $2 while a salad costs $8, are you going to spilt the salad four ways? No, you’re going to buy four hamburgers even though they are not as good for you (or the environment) as the salad.
Next, to make sure these Little World Changers can realize their potential, they need the proper schooling. The current education system in the USA is a joke. And who are doing their best to make sure it remains a joke? Republicans, the same people who have appointed themselves controllers of everybody’s naughty bits (except their own, of course). Right-wingers refuse to increase our education budget even while teachers are living like rats and having to buy their own school supplies. US children lag most of the developed world in science and mathematics. Meanwhile, Republicans lose their feces over Critical Race Theory and try to pull books from libraries. How is this country supposed to generate Nobel laureates, the latest in high-tech gadgetry, and amazing treatments and cures when many high-school graduates read at a 5th grade level? The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this country’s educational problems when kids were getting their lessons via ZOOM and parents were struggling to school them while trying to work from home. It’s not enough to create babies with potential – you have to provide them with a well-rounded education, one that actually makes them think for themselves rather than just regurgitate answers.
After all that, they need to survive to adulthood. Perfect safety can never be guaranteed, but we can take reasonable steps to reduce risk. The USA is one of the most gun-happy countries on Earth, if not #1. On average a mass shooting takes place every day; the ones we hear about are the worst in terms of body count and/or location. What if one of the children shot dead in Uvalde would have become a world-changer if only he/she had grown up? Or what if one of them would have sired or given birth to a world changer? And just who most vigorously fight even the most sensible gun laws? Yep – Republicans. The same people who want every conception to get a Social Security number.
Finally, those potential movers and shakers need a college education. (Yes, Steve Jobs was a dropout, but like Lincoln he had some lucky breaks.) College used to be free in the US. In many countries it is free. I could go on and on and on about predatory loan companies and the crushing debt that saddles graduates; that is, in fact, a topic worthy of its own essay. How are the world changers supposed to be out finding cures for currently incurable maladies, writing the Great American Novel, composing timeless music, running for office, or stirring the masses to fight injustice when they are living in ratholes, working three minimum-wage jobs, and subsisting on beans and rice and ramen?
If the forced-birth crowd really gave a rat’s derriere about human life, they would work to support life after birth. They would be screaming to protect SNAP and WIC, for the minimum wage to be a living wage, for public schools to receive more funding, for health care to be affordable, and for college – at least to the Bachelor’s level – to be free, or at least not so outrageously expensive. They would be demanding that student loans be strictly regulated to avoid usury and curb loan sharking. Instead, they abandon babies at the moment of birth, and howl about socialism, which they confound with Communism. As soon as the babies are born, they are forgotten.
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