Perspectives

Gloria Steinem made the observation on Bill Maher’s TV show that the Righteous Right love life from the point of conception to birth. I laughed out loud. From the point of conception to birth. Hah! And then it’s every child for herself.

While serving on the Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando board of directors, I’d visit the old office on Colonial Drive and there were always several pinched and pious protesters wailing about the sanctity of life and how egregious it is for American women to actually “own” and make decisions about their bodies. Don’t-cha just love how Republicans are all about getting the onerous government out of our lives, off our backs, but somehow when it comes to a woman’s uterus, well, they’d hypocritically set up a national registry, if allowed, for our daughters to register their uteruses as state-managed property.

At one time, there was a bait-and-switch operation doing business next door to the old Parenthood offices. If you didn’t know the difference, the signage would suggest that you could walk in and get birth control and family planning assistance. Far from it. They’d offer to help the woman if she was contemplating ending her pregnancy through abortion. They offered counseling. Do you know what the woman actually received upon delivery? Did she receive financial support? An educational trust fund for the new child? Decent housing for mother and child? A sustained diet of nutritional food? No, she got a two-week supply of Pampers. That’s it. Is that a hoot or what? “Good luck, girl. Here’s your Pampers!”

These same self-righteous folks rant and rave at a woman when she is, arguably, most vulnerable. Well, where are they when the wheels fall off a life and a family is thrown into poverty?

Twenty percent of America’s children live in poverty. One in five of our children, America’s children, are living in poverty. The walking wounded. America’s shame.

I hope you watched “60 Minutes” on Sunday night. It featured homeless children, by the busload, in Seminole County. By the busload! I am not easily brought to tears, but I did well up as children discussed on camera their lives living in a car or day-to-day in cheesy motels. The show portrayed beautiful, eloquent children, themselves brought to tears. From hunger. From guilt. From fear. From shame.

Seminole County Public Schools now have bus stops at motels, and our children line up for transportation to Casselberry schools. Not a few kids. Lines of children whose mother (or father) has lost her job, her home and is reduced to living out of a motel room — that is, if they are lucky enough to scrape together a few dollars to “move” out of their car. One incredibly mature girl talked matter-of-factly about “living” in a Wal-Mart parking lot (in her family’s car) and cleaning herself in a Wal-Mart bathroom before going to school. This is Seminole County. Not Mexico. Not Somalia. Not rural Alabama. Seminole County, Fla.

To those so concerned with the unborn, have the moral consistency to show equivalent compassion (and action) for “life” after birth. And to Gov. Rick Scott and our Republican legislators, your hypocrisy will be front and center as you eviscerate a woman’s fundamental right to choice while gutting state programs for the poor. What gutless cowards. You are Florida’s shame.