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Time Warp (Continued from
page 1)
If her premise is valid, there should be a
direct connection between poverty rates and the rate of births to unmarried women. As the
non-marital birth rate increases, so should the poverty rate. This has not happened!
Over the past 40 years, there has been a slow but steady increase in the birth rate of
unmarried women across all demographic categories. During this same period, poverty
rates have varied due to shifts in the economy and labor market, availability of jobs,
adequacy of wages and government benefits, and the cost of basic necessities, with no
direct relationship to the non-marital birthrate (see graph). Moreover, Mac Donald
never acknowledges that never-married mothers and their children account for less than 20%
of all poor people and for only 30% of all poor families (Census Bureau Report, Poverty
in the United States: 1997).
Claim #2. "...the right-to-have-a-baby-school, which holds that
regardless of the economic and emotional stability of the parents, a woman has a right to
have a baby at the government's expense. This question turns on only her rights, not the
baby's fate." Heather
Mac Donald, "The Real Welfare Problem is Illegitimacy," City Journal,
Winter 1998
"City health workers
should be required to discuss adoption as the most loving alternative for the child."
Heather Mac Donald,
"The Real Welfare Problem is Illegitimacy,"
City Journal, Winter 1998
Mac Donald suggests that childrearing is a
privilege and not a right, and that privilege should only be reserved for those most
"fit." She believes all poor unmarried mothers are not "fit"
parents by virtue of their economic and marital status.
Mac Donald's solution to protecting children from their "unfit" mothers is to
pressure these mothers into putting their children up for adoption. What would be
the result of government-mandated adoption counseling and the reduction in support
services? Mass orphanages to house and raise all children born to unmarried
women? Perhaps coerced abortion or forced sterilization?
Mac Donald calls for a "Big Brother" approach to family life. She
advocates for government to separate children from their parents instead of providing
financial support for poor children and their families.
Claim #3 "To be blunt, rather than easing the way for
single mothers, the city should restore the burden of having a child out of wedlock.
Only in the last three decades did society facilitate illegitimacy, with predictable
results." Heather
Mac Donald, "The Real Wel |
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