Abortion and Child Bearing in Welfare.

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A very heated discussion is going on in recently in the USA regarding abortion rights and the increased payment to families on welfare on childbirth. What I mean to say here is the decision by the government to deny welfare payments to families who decide to have children when on Welfare.

There are two facets to this discussion:

1. The basic right of people to bear children, have and expand family.

2. The ability of the people to support the children they give birth to on their own.


My honest opinion goes with the state that it is not appropriate to expand your family if it is not possible to support the family on your own without assistance. This may lead to chlid abuse, lack of proper upbringing for the children, denial of the basic nutrition, facilities. Children from such families may grow up into disgruntled individuals and may pose a threat to society.

Once a family is able to support itself without the welfare aid, then the decision to have children or not to have children is entirely their own. Also second important point to be noted here is the Welfare money comes out of the taxes collected from the ordinary citizens (like you and me) and the more people are given the aid the more tax will have to be paid. It does not mean that the welfare aid should be stopped, but what I mean to say is that the aid should be given to properly to satisfy basic needs for existance.

Having children when one cannot afford does not represent a basic need for existance. Of course having children is a nice feeling. But again it is a case of must have and nice to have. We need to differentiate between these two things.

Again as noted in the discussion by distinguished people that the additional welfare money for the third child when a woman already has two children is mere $64, which is not even sufficient to pay for the months supply of diapers. But keeping in mind the bigger picture, is this amount is paid to say even 10000 families who decide to have a third child while on welfare, the total would go to $64000 per month and $768000 per year. This is a huge amount of money which can be utilised for some other purposes to improve the society.

The discussion is not against welfare payments to families who already have children, but it appeals the families to reconsider their discussion to have children when on welfare. A social awareness campaign should be organised instead to discussing it endlessly on the media.

The next issue of the woman's right to have a abortion should not be removed. There may be incidences that the conception may have happened when it was not desired. In cases of rape, adolescent sex etc. Even in married couples, people may chose not to have children at a given time for a variety of reasons. Abortion may give them a way to avoid having unwanted children. Everyone (almost) loves children, but social,economic situations may make it unviable for couples to have children. Making abortion illegal may create a lot more problems than the critiques hope to solve. As always there is darker side for everything. However, the benefits and needs of a greater populace should be kept in mind when taking any decision.

Religion does not tell you to have unwanted children and then desert them and / or abuse them.

Mukul Dharwadkar