It is time to correct our terminology. You are not pro-life if you do not believe in abortion; you are simply anti-choice. If you are truly pro-life, then the quality of each human life would be more valuable. There is a lack of concern about the mother’s health and the long-term care for the infant’s physical well-being into adulthood.
With all the new abortion bans and time limits placed on getting an abortion throughout the United States, there will be tremendous consequences. The lack of affordable day care will guarantee almost every woman will have no option but to quit her job to stay home and care for the infant. The financial burden on each state will substantially grow for social services, Medicaid, financial support and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Every child born to a woman who is forced to be pregnant will be filing with the county for all these support services.
Forced pregnancy is the term for women who no longer have the choice to terminate an unplanned pregnancy. Who are being forced to continue a pregnancy of an unviable fetus or forced to continue with a pregnancy that risks the mother’s life or one that is simply unplanned for. Without any question, these are forced pregnancies.
So, besides the growing future state financial responsibilities, Western North Carolina already has a crisis. In The Charlotte Ledger, Michelle Crouch addresses the current dilemma in Mecklenburg County. Dozens of children have no choice but to sleep on air mattresses on the floor of Mecklenburg County offices. Not a home, but a county building floor because of a dire shortage of foster care homes and the lack of crisis beds available through the Department of Social Services. These children have experienced more in their short lives than anyone should ever experience in their entire life. Physical and sexual abuse, neglect, abandonment and simply not being wanted or planned for have brought them though the doors of Social Services. Where is their choice?
So, what is going to happen now that women are being forced to have children that they are not physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually prepared to raise? What is going to happen to these children, what floors will be available to them as the number of unexpected and unplanned for children grow?
The burden on the county and to the state will not stop as these children turn 18 and outgrow the system that has been caring for them. Think about the cost that will be incurred by juvenile detention centers and the legal system. What about as adults as they continue to be incarcerated?
The lawmakers are not thinking ahead. Our own representatives such as Chuck Edwards, Ted Budd and Tricia Cotham are not thinking about their entire constituency. They are only pandering to a small population of Americans who believe abortion is wrong. In that case, those individuals should certainly not have an abortion, but they should not deny that right to others. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe that abortion should be and stay legal.
Planned Parenthood is a godsend to so many women. They offer cancer screening, birth control, reproductive education, HIV testing, STD testing, vasectomies and reproductive health care at affordable prices. If folks want to do away with abortion, let’s start with affordable birth control. In my lengthy life, birth control pills went from $15 per month to $50-plus. A woman or a family should not have to weigh the cost of birth control or paying their rent.
It is imperative that we reverse the ongoing attack on women’s reproductive care and abortion. Every child should be a wanted child, a cared-for and loved child.
— Mena Kates
Asheville
This writer has hit the nail on the head. Legislators continue to ignore their constituents’ opinions and bury their sorry heads in the sand.