re: A word of caution to Pro Lifers

quote:

---

How about this...you can get an abortion, but you get sterilized when you get it done.

---

Not a horrible idea but it won't sale.

What about making it a very serious crime to father a child without the financial means to support that child and the willingness to support that child emotionally and finally the means to protect that child's physical security to the fullest extent possible?

Seriously...I get the pro-life stand and I am sympathetic. For what its worth I can't stand the thought of abortion to a far greater degree than I don't "like" the idea of capital punishment. I accept both as a necessary evil due to the failings of our society to demand people take responsibility for their actions.

The Alabama law will survive the supreme court. Maybe not totally but enough to sentence some women in this country to a life sentence of supporting a child because that woman made a bad decision. Fair enough....decisions have consequences. The bill will also most assuredly sentence some children to a very tough life that they weren't in the least bit culpable in creating. What it doesn't do is sentence the father to the same sentence for making a bad decision. That is not equitable.

Fathering a child and refusing to accept the myriad of responsibilities that go along with it, not simply financial support but the full gamut of what a child needs from a parent over a lifetime, is arguably the most serious crime our society faces. Prisons are full of men who were born due to the bad decisions of people who were not capable or willing to make the sacrifices necessary to properly care for a child until it could provide for itself. Even more devastating are the number of people who fail to meet their potential due to difficulties associated with their childhood. Poverty isn't the problem it is a lack of proper commitment to the child that drives many into addiction, a life of crime or merely a life of wasted potential. Many people in this country come from very low income households and do fine. Money isn't the issue...it is being committed to what the outcome will be from sexual activity, period.

Creating a life should require a legal commitment to seeing the job through to end from both parents. When they fail to do so the state MUST step in which means the rest of us are on the hook financially and will suffer the consequences resulting in an unwanted child becoming an adult. The Alabama law sentences a woman to that commitment, right or wrong, for life....but it doesn't place the same burden on the father and should therefore be stricken down, in my opinion, and re-written to force men to be equally responsible for their decisions.

Bringing a child into the world with no intention to properly care for and nourish that child to adulthood is a much more heinous crime than any drug offense and even murder in a crime of passion. Anyone who does so should be sentenced to a life of supporting that child until that child is able to support itself. Our society is more than willing to do this to women....we are less willing to sentence men to the same sentence.