It’s the holidays, and you know what that means: Time for another look at how much America hates children.
Many pro-lifers thought that Dobbs would enervate the country’s longstanding enthusiasm for snuffing out li’l ones still in the womb. Wrong — at least for now. In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that “[n]ew state bans have done little … to deter women from obtaining abortions.” Statistics from
the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion rights [sic], found that nationwide there were 183 more monthly abortions on average in the 12-month period following the … decision compared with the monthly average prior to the decision. That trend mirrors similar findings by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that also supports abortion rights [sic], which showed the number of abortions rising in most states in the first half of this year compared with 2020, the most recent year for which data are available.
Babies lucky enough to see a maternity ward have no guarantee of being born chubby, healthy, and happy. According to the annual report card from the March of Dimes, “the U.S. preterm birth rate remains alarmingly high.” And no, single-payer healthcare isn’t the “solution.” Major drivers of premature birth include obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, substance abuse, and being too young (under 17) or too old (over 35) for pregnancy.
When babies go “home,” they often find themselves in unstable, even dangerous, environments. In all, 40.0 percent are born to unwed mothers. As usual, the black illegitimacy rate (70.1 percent) is the worst. But close behind are American Indians/Alaska Natives (68.5 percent), Hispanics (53.2 percent), and Native Hawaiians/Other Pacific Islanders (51.8 percent). Whites, at 27.5 percent, have scant reason to brag. And to put Asians’ performance — 12.6 percent — in perspective, it’s more than double the national rate in the early 1960s.
In 2019, the Pew Research Center analyzed “130 countries and territories,” and found that “the U.S. has the world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households.” (Mexico does a better job. So does Nigeria. So does Afghanistan.) With American fathers so frequently absent, all manner of dysfunction metastasizes. Drug/alcohol addiction, crime, suicide, teen pregnancy, homelessness, sexual abuse — take your pick. Even a few intellectually honest liberals concede the consequences of family fragmentation.
Irrespective of parental status, daycare is the norm for many children. In a civilized country, warehousing kids with low-wage workers who have no familial link to their charges would be roundly condemned. At-home mothers are needed most during the early years, of course, but as The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann inconveniently noted, their “physical presence is necessary for a child to have his best start in life, and it tapers off only gradually over some 15-20 years” Child psychiatrist Stanley I. Greenspan made his thoughts on the issue unambiguous: “The only way to improve daycare is for fewer parents to use it.”
Create an inconvenience or two for the selfish, ignorant louts who brought you into this world, and you may find yourself “medicated.” In 2021, the University of East London’s John Read warned that “consumption of psychiatric drugs by children … is far higher in the US than elsewhere,” yet “very little is known about the effects of these drugs, taken alone or in combination, on the developing brain.” (Not-so-fun fact: Melatonin is widely dispensed by parents eager to get their tykes to sleep, even though researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder say “safety and efficacy data” regarding the hormone’s ingestion “are slim.”)
Grok the zeitgeist, and it’s difficult to disagree with author and YouTuber Aaron Clarey, who in an April livestream thundered: “God, I hate American parents. You’re such shit. You’re such worthless pieces of shit!”
There’s an obvious alternative to screwing up your children: Don’t have any at all. That approach is being vigorously pursued, too.
A “senior reporter for Vox covering social policy” recently expressed the thoughts of many in her generational cohort: “I am not someone who has dreamed of being a mother; I’ve never particularly liked babysitting or even being around little kids.” The U.S. birth rate is hovering at a record low, and many vociferously proud non-breeders have embraced the ludicrous notion that they are a “mom” or a “dad” to a pet. Last year, an ABC News/Ipsos poll found that “nearly a quarter of U.S. adults ages 18 to 45 … say that climate change has made them reconsider having a biological child.”
Think America can be “the last best hope of earth” and hate children at the same time?
One would assume that a modification of welfare rules that would financially reward households lead by a married couple would greatly reduce illegitimacy rates. Why this has not been done should be obvious.