Illinois Republican representatives John D Cavaletto and Keith Wheeler sponsored a bill that would amend the state’s Vital Records Act:
‘…provides that if the unmarried mother cannot or refuses to name the child’s father, either a father must be conclusively established by DNA evidence or, within 30 days after birth, another family member who will financially provide for the child must be named, in court, on the birth certificate.’
‘Provides that absent DNA evidence or a family member’s name, a birth certificate will not be issued and the mother will be ineligible for financial aid from the State for support of the child.’
As if single mothers were not already victimized enough in our society! Now let’s victimize the children, too!
I agree, it should not be the responsibility of the public to take care of the children fathered by irresponsible men and their victimized women. It is not acceptable to father children and then not take responsibility for them. Young women should evaluate whether they can afford children before they have them. Society should not have to pay for the children of deadbeat fathers.
But denying them birth certificates is outright bizarre. How exactly does that solve any problem, but create even more hardships for the most exposed and vulnerable people in our society?
It is education that solves this problem. Teaching young men a sense of responsibility. Making birth control available to young women. Subsidizing birth control (by funding organizations like Planned Parenthood) is a huge preventative measure and immensely cheaper than welfare for the victims. Family planning should be part of every curriculum in high school. Condoms should be readily available to girls.
It’s all about education folks!
‘murica…unfortunately. 50 years of deliberate dumbing down is bearing fruit.
It’s like these Christianists in the GOP are constantly saying to themselves, “What is the Christian thing to do? We’ll do the opposite. So, what is another mean thing we can do?”
The Taliban will soon have nothing on them.
Unbelievable! This is the state that brought us Dennis Hastart. I think we need to propose a law that allows us to impeach any elected official that proposes a law that legislates morality. The republican partyhas no depth to their hypocrisy.
30 years ago, a friend came up with a novel solution to the problem of subsidizing fatherless children. The first time a single girl comes in with a child who needs public subsidy, you give it to her. Then you say, “According to our actuarial charts, you are going to have another child in 18 months (or whatever). Come back in 18 months. If you’ve had another child, we’ll give you money for that one, too. But if you haven’t had another child, we’ll give you the money anyway. And we’ll keep doing that every 18 months. Now, you can have lots of kids and we’ll pay you to raise them, or you can take the money and give this one child all the benefits of the best education the money can buy.” Problem solved, he said, in one generation. I don’t know if it would work, but I thought it was a clever idea.
@ Mary Barnes: A remember a gritty urban school that paid kids to stay in school. It worked.