The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) gave states greater flexibility to formulate and implement initiatives to reduce welfare dependency and encourage employment for members of low-income families with children. For the nation, in 2006, 10 years after passage of the Act, the birth rate for women 15 to 50 years old receiving public assistance income in the last 12 months was 155 births per 1,000 women, about three times the rate for women not receiving public assistance (53 births per 1,000 women).
There's something very wrong with that picture, but of course suggesting that *gasp* women exercise discretion when reproducing, or that certain economic groups have fewer children at our expense is considered the height of political incorrectness and tantamount to an attack on American freedoms. Entire report available here as a .pdf file. From Carpe Diem.
7 comments:
What exactly is it that you think is "very wrong with that picture"? Is your objection that women who are on assistance shouldn't be having as many children? That wealthier women (or those not on public assistance) should be having more?
Brian, apply some critical thinking to this. Do you REALLY think that the main reason poor women are having children at an increased rate is that they want to be a burden on the system? Because no matter how much you think the family is getting, they certainly don't have what anyone would consider a high quality of life.
Access to reproductive education, financial and geographic access to contraceptives and abortion all play a role in this. Our schools are not able to tell kids how to prevent pregnancy or STDs, there is very limited access to contraceptives for people who are poor.
This is a class issue because it is an economic and educational issue.
Hey Brian...have you seen the movie called "Idiocracy"?? seems to me to fit right in here!
Control over reproduction is key to women's emancipation. It's not only about access to education and contraceptives. It's also about modeling. Children and teenagers in poor neighborhoods see few positive family models with employed adults successfully managing a household and making smart life choices.
With regard to access, think about the millions of undocumented residents in this country. An increasing number of undocumented immigrants are young women and teenaged girls. Without access to reproductive health services, they have high pregnancy rates and often raise their children in extremely poor single-parent homes without extended family support.
Well, to have a stake in controlling reproduction, and to have the ability and resources to make educated choices regarding it, but not to have complete control of it.
Of course you're right about the issues contributing to these statistics. Poor and undereducated women having more children isn't news, and it happens all over the world. Hell, I've seen it back home. My comment on the post spoke to that, and that more opportunities need to be in place for these women (and men) to be productive, rather than simply reproductive, members of society.
but many women receiving public assistance in fact *are* working - its very easy to earn so little that you're simultaneously working and on welfare.
So how exactly is it a good thing to be having children when you are struggling?
Do women with less economic privilege have children in order to support themselves? I doubt it, but who knows? I've seen worse.
I am certainly pro choice and definitely believe women own their reproductive life, but comon, we all live with the consequences of your decisions.
In case you think I'm just some privileged white male, my own mom was on welfare and food stamps with five kids. But it wasn't her doing that she ended up in that situation. At some point, we were forcibly taken from her and put in foster homes.
So I kinda know what it's like in person.
Also: excellent blog. Interesting read.
Post a Comment