PERSONHOOD

Like most people I have an opinion on the frenzy of state adoption legislation that has gone viral in the last several months. My opinion is based on freedom. Freedom to choose, freedom from oppression and freedom from governmental intervention, whenever it wants or whatever it wants. 

Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject with, what I hope will be suggestions on how to mitigate the overbearing burden imposed by the states in question.

A few facts: Not everyone who gets pregnant wants to have a baby nor can afford to have one. Not every parent can afford to raise a seriously deformed child. Many women would prefer not to raise the child of a family member or stranger who raped them 

Many potential parents are classified as poor, below a certain poverty line and may not choose to have a child and will treat said child as unwanted.  Visit any detention facility in this country and ask how many of the residents could be considered unwanted. Probably most of them. The foster care system, jail, gangs, detox centers, homeless shelters are full of unwanted children. 

While there seems to be a serious effort in many states, mostly by white males, to control the lives of women, an oddity from a party that is so obsessed with keeping government out of their lives, I felt I could offer a few suggestions states might consider “adopting” as codicils to the newly minted right to life, anti-abortion legislation.

So here they are, in no particular order. They may seem draconian but keep in mind a born child is a living American human being and should be entitled to all the benefits available to all Americans. 

From conception every child, who qualifies, will be assigned legal counsel to look out for the child’s interests, at the state’s expense, until the child reaches 18 years of age. The child must have their rights protected by a requirement that the health behavior of the parent must be consistent with a normal healthy birth. If the parent is on drugs or demonstrating any behaviors that could risk the health of the unborn child the state must step in and provide full coverage and service for the mother and her health, to assure a healthy birth, at the states expense. If the mother is on welfare, food stamps, Medicaid or other state benefits the child automatically goes on them at the moment of conception, provided by the state. If there is no health insurance in the household the state has to provide it for the child at the state expense. The child is also counted at conception in the population. The child is represented until 18 years of age, if the parent cannot care for him/her. The child cannot be given up at birth, or sent to adoption without the child’s legal counsel consent. If such a choice is desired by the parent, the state has to pay for the care until such an acceptable, suitable arrangement can be established. The state cannot do anything to the child unless the child’s legal counsel agrees. The state pays for all legal-council expenses. The mother is allowed in the HOV lane with her unborn person.

With every decision there are consequences.  If states are to define, control and mandate how people live their lives then those very same states must put up the resources to guarantee the unborn are provided the same rights to a healthy life, as any other citizen in the state. If the family can’t pay for the services then the state must. 

I wonder which state will begin this process.