To the editor:
No female wants an unplanned or forced pregnancy, but it happens. Besides the most common circumstances where women get pregnant, pre-teen and teenage girls, younger than 12 and older are impregnated because of their immaturity, insecurity, naïveté; by manipulation, molestation, abuse, and/or rape. The reality is that these girls, their offspring, we, as parents, relatives, human services professionals, and taxpayers must deal with the consequences.
How many politicians and voters who want to end the right to choose, have ever seen a pregnant or parenting 12-year-old girl, much less a shelter full of them? As a social worker and special needs housing specialist with over 30 years’ experience, I can assure you that well intentioned charitable organizations and government programs can never erase the trauma and harm these children and their children endure.
Mothers and unplanned babies, frequently unwanted, unloved, and improperly cared for become victims in the worst sense. You find them in broken homes, foster care, juvenile detention and correctional facilities, alcohol and substance abuse programs, homeless shelters, hospitals, and on the streets. We pay for their and their children’s shelter, nourishment, health care, education, incarceration and/or rehabilitation, burial, and not infrequently the cycle repeats.
May this reality and compassion guide all of us as we vote. Every candidate who advocates ending women’s right to choose their future must be asked exactly how they plan to provide for these girls and women and their children, what the cost will be and how it will be paid for?
Randy Hurst
Slate Hill