Are welfare recipients being encouraged to have abortions?

Salon ^ | Dec. 5, 2002 | Jennifer Foote Sweeney

[Leonard210]

a woman's constitutional right to abortion

Sorry Jenny, can't go on. Leftist extremism nullifies your opinion.

[alnick]

You didn't miss much. Just some idiot whining that she thinks that not getting government handouts equates to having her rights to have children revoked.

[fourdeuce82d]

Are welfare recipients being encouraged to have abortions?

One can only hope.

[jz638]

woman's constitutional right to abortion

I don't have that one in my copy of the constitution, and I don't think anyone else does either.

[Congressman Billybob]

Salon? Salon? Didn't that used to be an Internet e-zine?

Yes, I've got it now. It is a corporation which sucks liberal (read: foolish) money into a black whole where it is never heard from again. It is a stock that gives penny stocks a bad name. It is a roost for liberal chickens who don't have a place to come home to -- until the blood-letting ends and it closes.

Did I miss anything?

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest UPI column, "Enrons Are Everywhere"

Click for latest book, "to Restore Trust in America"

[Congressman Billybob]

"Whole" = "hole," as in hole in the wall, hole in the wallet, hole in the head.

BB

[End The Hypocrisy]

Jay Leno has humorously asked on his show if we should really be encouraging such folks to be fruitful and multiply... (especially given our record high $6.3 trillion dollar national debt). As Charles Darwin said, anatomy is destiny.

[Blue Screen of Death]

I tried to get my head around this one;

Jennifer, I think I see your problem.

[jimt]

Jennifer obviously thinks that people have a right to produce children they can't support, and to have the goobermint force OTHERS to pay while the non-supporters retain all the rights of parents.

Disgusting.

[HLPfiver]

Notice how she starts with the assumption that anyone should be able to raise as many children as they want regardless of their financial wherewithal? My wife just gave birth to our first child, and we've been married for six years. Know why we waited? We couldn't afford to have children.

And that's as it should be. If you can't afford to have kids, don't have kids. Maybe you should consider using birth control, or (gasp) abstinence! Just because President Bush doesn't support welfare for anyone who wants kids whenever it's convenient does NOT mean that he supports abortion. Maybe he supports personal responsibility and accountability.

Since Ms. Sweeney is so eager to discuss her constitutional rights, maybe someone should point out to her that the Constitution guarantees a right to the 'pursuit' of happiness - not happiness itself. If you get pregnant at 15 or while you're making $6/hr, your life's probably going to be pretty tough. And that's ok with me.

[MHGinTN]

Ahh, the dissonance rises! The national exposure debates are about to open up, revealing the despotic democrat party's long-running defense of the infensible. The noise level will continue to rise as the democrat operatives and serial killing supporters seek to turn off the few attentive voters. partial birth abortion is the stinking albatross around the democrat collective necks. I look forward to fanning the breeze over the future weeks.

[independentmind]

Notice how she starts with the assumption that anyone should be able to raise as many children as they want regardless of their financial wherewithal? My wife just gave birth to our first child, and we've been married for six years. Know why we waited? We couldn't afford to have children.

How is it that we live in the wealthiest country in the world--the wealthiest country the world has ever seen, in fact, and so many young married couples cannot afford to have children? How is it that our parents managed? My parents had five children in seven years and they somehow managed. They didn't even own a home or two cars when they started having children either. Imagine that.

[End The Hypocrisy]

One answer may be that the concentration of wealth has become increasingly concentrated within the wealthiest 1% of our population, and they've kept the USA from banning soft money campaign contributions that were implemented over half a decade ago even in countries like Mexico. The top 1%'s wealth abounds, but it's deceptive to think that most others share in such wealth just because their hording society's currency has boosted their own holdings. When saying that, I do NOT advocate anything even remotely resembling socialism. But paying down the $6.3 trillion dollar national debt, for example, seems like a higher priority than cow-towing to the exceedingly wealthy at every turn. They consider everyone else to be peasants and rabble for the most part, and covet our envy. It's their right to do so, but it's our right to democratically further our own political agendas too.

Food for thought...

[MHGinTN]

There is an element of envy in our equation, however, that drives people to believe so many 'things' are a necessity now. Perhaps our dependence upon these 'things' that build the wealth for a few cause the many to chase phantom eaze?

[Fintan]

Jennifer Foote Sweeney apparently is one of these twits (and boy am I glad I spelled that correctly) who thinks having three names makes her an (drum-roll please) "intellectual".

For some reason, I can just picture ol' Jenny-poo sitting around with her small circle of friends, spewing forth her dimwitted-drivel while falling madly in love with the sound of her own voice. Like most smug idiots do.

Oh, and by the way Jen...Here's a copy of the U. S. Constitution. I've read it again and again and still can't find that "Women's Right to Abortion" amendment. Maybe you can find it and get back to me....

P.S. How's Salon's stock doing these days????

[HLPfiver]

Hold on a second. The question of whether I can afford something is relative - it depends on what standard of living I want to maintain. Our parents managed to survive while having boatloads of kids because they settled for less comfortable lives than most people today are willing to.

We did have a house and two cars before we had a kid - and our decision to wait to have a child is a big part of why we could afford all that stuff. So if you want kids early, have 'em. Just don't complain about your lack of material possessions, and don't you dare suggest that I owe you some of mine.

[independentmind]

Our parents managed to survive while having boatloads of kids because they settled for less comfortable lives than most people today are willing to.

And it's funny how today we are such a happier, healthier lot of people, isn't it?

The poor will always be with us, HLPfiver. To infer that because one is poor, one is not deserving of children--some here even argue irresponsible if not contracepting--is reprehensible. What's more, it's completely muddleheaded. Encouraging the disadvantaged to marry and have children is probably the best hope we have of seeing them become responsible, self-sufficient citizens.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>There is an element of envy in our equation, however, that drives people to believe so many 'things' are a necessity now.<<<


You are right, indeed!

[HLPfiver]

We ARE a healthier lot of people. You think we're in such bad shape because we pay more attention to our discomforts. But they were always there. The only reason those technological and medical breakthroughs haven't made us happier as a society is because of entitlement programs that have made most Americans think they deserve some kind of handout.

And I NEVER said the poor weren't deserving of children. Freedom is about choices; if you want children, you can have them. What I complained about was the implication that poor people's children are my responsibility.

"Encouraging the disadvantaged to marry and have children is probably the best hope we have of seeing them become responsible, self-sufficient citizens."

And I don't know where you get this: If you're arguing that married parents are better than unmarried parents, I agree. If you're arguing (as it seems you are) that the miracle of parenthood turns people into caring, responsible people, I must suggest that you're the one being muddleheaded.