Excuse me as I pull out my soapbox...
There is a persistent belief that a population of women exist in America who pop out babies solely for the purpose of increasing their welfare benefits.
Hmmmm... having walked a few rounds in the poverty cycle myself, I can assure you that there is no windfall to be had in those "benefits". Adding more mouths to a family in need only makes their situation more dire.
But.. but... if *I* had that amount of money given to me I could pay off all of my student loans and put down a decent payment on a house.
What you and I would do with a regular check from the government is pay bills. We would budget and get ourselves out of debt. We would PLAN.
The complete lack of the ability to plan is why there are no welfare mommas "milking" the system. It is a MYTH. Nothing but a comfortable lie to make the nation at large indignant over the expense and injustice of our welfare system.
Let's be honest, most babies are not conceived intentionally, regardless of their parents financial status. Couples TRYING to make a baby can attest that it's not as easy as getting drunk and falling down. It's almost as if Karma laughs at us and those least wanting a baby get one while depriving those begging for one. It's not fair.
To be a welfare momma, a woman would have to plan a partner and know her fertility cycle. She would have to ensure she had a safe pregnancy resulting in a live birth, meaning proper prenatal care and nourishment. She would have to arrange for transportation and childcare for her trips to the doctor and then to the welfare office. Of course any woman eligible for welfare is also eligible for WIC, a program offering milk and formula for pregnant and newly delivered mothers. She would have to keep those appointments and have the means to get there. Then there is all of the paperwork that must be filled out, assuming she is literate.
The truth of the matter is that our nation's welfare mommas are poor in many, many areas beyond finances. They are transportation poor, family poor, frequently education poor, some are intelligence poor. If you put yourself in those shoes and walk that mile, all of the sudden your ability to plan and coordinate and manipulate the system comes to a crashing halt. You are in survival mode. Another mouth to feed, another butt to diaper is nothing but another blow to your already meager resources. Good luck paying off student loans when you're scrambling to keep the electricity on.
And there is the whole issue of having screaming kids underfoot. Kids wear you down. You lose sleep, they bring home snotty illnesses and their constant clamor for attention turns the strongest of us into blubbering puddles of uselessness. Good luck remembering your own name in this environment let alone that the gas bill is due. Or to take your birth control pill.
Our answer is to toss money at the problem, construct complicated and expensive formularies to prevent cheating, and then bitch about the expense and demonize the recipients.
I don't have a quick and easy answer, but I do know that blaming the victim is only making a bigger problem. The one thing this country offers is an incredible network of charities and that makes an incredible difference.
Two thousand years ago an unmarried woman sought shelter at a crowded inn. In today's world, Mary would be eligible for WIC and Medicaid if she possessed reliable transportation for her appointments. Her baby would be born in a crowded clinic as onlookers speculate her legal status as an immigrant. She could expect to be discharged twenty-four hours later with a DFS referral of concern since she had no heated home to take her baby.
Having a baby is difficult and scary at best under any circumstance. Let's not add stigma to the mix.
