Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway From: uunet!infmx!robert@ncar.ucar.EDU (robert coleman) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: birth control failure? Message-ID: Date: 21 Jun 91 16:27:32 GMT References: <14904@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <15445@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> Organization: Informix Software, Inc. Lines: 75 Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: zola.ics.uci.edu farmerl@handel.CS.ColoState.Edu (lisa ann farmer) writes: >But let me bring up one point why I see *at this point* that financial >support is important. A woman who is pregnant will have to take a >leave of absence from her job - many times this is not available to >her. Therefore she must quit. Now she must find another job, find >someone to take care of the infant while she is looking/interviewing, >maybe relocate if the area she is in has a horrible economy and once >she gets a job she will most likely be paid less than her male >counterparts. >Now she has to live - supporting herself and the child - she may not >have health insurance if she worked at a small company before and has >to pay off the hospital. Plus any doctor's visits. And she missed >maybe a month's pay or more having the child and finding a new job. >I'm not saying this is the way it should be but for many women this is >their situation. I think we need to start looking at this issue from >the perspective of the "common" worker who is making $20,000 or less >per year. This women cannot support herself and the child. If the >U.S had national health insurance, daycare available at employment, >and a women and men were paid equally and given the same amount of >chances for advancement, I would not advocate that the men pay child >support (or help with daycare or provide health insurance for the >child) unless they wanted. But this isn't the case I don't advocate >that women should have to support the child on her own. But she *chooses* to put herself in this situation! She doesn't have to face any of these consequences unless she *decides* she wants to have a child without a willing father. I think it's a woman's choice whether to have a child. I just can't see why the man, or the government, should have to support the child she *chooses* to create. Do you think a family should consider whether they can afford a child before they have one? Don't you think a mother should consider whether she can afford a child without a family, if she hasn't got a willing partner? Being able to make children doesn't grant the right to make children at will without having to face the economic consequences, any more than the ability to spend credit doesn't grant the right to avoid facing the economic consequences. You know what you're doing and have a pretty good idea of the consequences in advance. There's no reason why society should have to bear those consequences for women. If women want help, they can find a willing partner. If they want to do it own their own, then they should do it on their own. (Note: I support pre-coital contracts so that a woman who doesn't feel she has a choice can lock the man into having no choice as well. But for the common woman, who legally and morally has a choice, one of the things she should consider when weighing choices is whether she can afford to raise a child she created by herself.) >I think this society has responsibilty of keeping parents sane and >able to raise children. It is an incredibly stressful situation to >try to raise a child when the money isn't there. Many times that >stress gets taken out on children. I think that we need to look at >the overall effect not providing adequate daycare and insurance has on >the future of our society - I agree it should not rest on individuals >shoulders. I think society has a responsibility to make sex education available to all, to make birth control devices readily and cheaply available, to make abortions cheap and as painless as possible, and to socially encourage both parties to practice birth control so that a woman doesn't ever have to make the decision whether to face the financial consequences of having a child until she wants to make that decision. I don't think that society should have to support the decision of a woman who knows she can't support a child but creates one anyway. Robert C. -- ---------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: My company has not yet seen fit to elect me as spokesperson. Hmmpf.