Chris Jepson: A recommendation for Pope Francis, for America

Should the impoverished be encouraged to have children? Should poor people incapable of sustaining themselves multiply their and our nation’s poverty by having more children?

Every human being who is born becomes part of the American team (dream). This means the healthcare, housing, nutrition and educational needs of that child are a national priority and as such, America will tax itself to ensure that those four concerns are adequately addressed through national uniform standards, policies and programs. This I believe.

Furthermore, any woman finding herself pregnant will have available superior pre-natal care. The mother will have access to nutritional foods and will be trained (if required) and encouraged on how to be a “good” mother.

That said, how many more impoverished children does the nation require?

Can we not as a nation encourage and reward wise family planning so as to have more of America’s children born to parents capable of adequately providing for their offspring?

Poverty is wretched. It is horrible. It is doubly so when burdened with the responsibility of children. It is one thing to be an impoverished adult; it is quite another to be a child under those circumstances. However you have arrived in poverty, through drug addiction, mental illness, bankruptcy, factory closings, whether you are a third-generation welfare recipient, how is society, how is America served by you bearing more children under impoverished conditions (whether temporary or lifelong)?

The sanctimonious right-to-lifers get all teary-eyed over the unborn. They scream, they rant, they cite Biblical text claiming that every egg, every sperm is sacred. How can folks who are so taken with the never-born care so little about the living?

That is one of the most glaring ironies of all. America’s Righteous Right huff and puff about the sanctity of life but don’t give a damn about quality of life.

Unless there is an unspoken reason to encourage America’s impoverished to reproduce, why would we not discourage folks who cannot afford children to actually not have them? Seriously, do we have poor people so they can wait on us, sweep our public terminals, pick up our garbage, check us out at Quik Stops, or to be on welfare? Of course not. But the reality of life is there will be impoverished among us. That said and logically speaking, should they reproduce? Who benefits? Society? Our state and federal budgets? The children themselves?

“The poor you always have with you.” – Jesus (John 12:8)

But that doesn’t mean they reproduce themselves willy-nilly with no regard for the consequences of their actions. Every child born comes with a cost. It is imperative for children to not be born into poverty. It burdens us all through additional costs (healthcare, housing, social services, etc.), to say nothing of the crushing psychological burden of being poor in America.

America needs to aggressively make available free, safe and accessible birth control throughout the nation. We need national educational programs promoting wise (and timely) contraceptive use. You want to change the numbers of impoverished in America? Encourage family planning nationwide, particularly among America’s poor. If necessary, rewards and incentives should be employed to limit fertility. Let us make every effort to make every child a wanted, loved and sustained child. To the degree we can accomplish that as a nation, it behooves us to act.

Support Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando at 407-246-1788. Planned children make the nation stronger.