In response to the Supreme Court decision overturning the federal right to abortion, Republicans — woefully ignorant of what’s required to raise a child — have pitched proposals they claim are adequate alternatives to abortion care.
But GOP lawmakers’ infantile grasp of pregnancy’s demands have doomed the proposed measures from the get-go.
From baby drop-offs to tax write-offs, Republicans are proposing and promoting “solutions” they say will help pregnant people. In reality, forcing people to carry pregnancies against their will undermines conservatives’ meager parental support efforts.
Last month, I explained why a series of child care proposals from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., including prenatal child support payments and forcing people to borrow from their Social Security benefits to pay for child care, fall far short of what pregnant people need to care for children.
Rubio is like a grandparent giving you a nickel to buy a soda: He clearly has no idea how much this stuff actually costs.
In another example of the anti-abortion movement’s gross incompetence, a recent article in The New York Times noted the increasing popularity of baby drop boxes. These are receptacles where people who give birth can leave their baby if they are unable or don’t want to care for it. But as the Times notes, this option gives pregnant people no autonomy in determining who receives their child, provides minimal means for children to connect with their birth parents down the line, and occasionally leaves pregnant people susceptible to prosecution. And importantly, this option still forces people to give birth in a country with a notoriously high maternal mortality rate.
Examples of the GOP’s neglect for pregnant people don’t stop there. The Washington Post reported Sunday that Republican leadership rebuffed a proposal from GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who suggested sending parents $250 monthly checks per child in response to the demise of Roe v. Wade. But according to the Post, “GOP aides and conservative policy analysts are skeptical that the Supreme Court decision will produce a meaningful shift in the party’s stance on federal family benefits.” In other words, the GOP is happy to be the party of deadbeats who force Americans to birth children and offer them only a pittance, if anything, for their trouble.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. Recommended
