[Content Note: Reproductive policing; misogyny.]
"We should sell that message. Not in a mean way to tell people who already have made a bad decision, but if you've had one child and you're not married, you shouldn't have another one. ...We need to be telling kids 'don't have kids until you're married.' It's your best chance to get in the middle class is not to have kids. There's all kinds of ways, and we can debate...but there are all kinds of ways to stop having kids. ...You know, but we have to teach our kids that. But some of that's sort of some tough love too. Maybe we have to say 'enough's enough, you shouldn't be having kids after a certain amount.' I don't know how you do all that because then it's tough to tell a woman with four kids that she's got a fifth kid we're not going to give her any more money."—Senator Rand Paul, at a luncheon in Lexington, Kentucky, last week.
First of all: "The idea of withholding benefits from women who have more than a certain number of children is actually current policy in many states. While most programs through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, or welfare) give families more money if they have more children, 16 states cap the assistance and don't give any extra money for new children if someone in the household is already receiving aid." And all that policy does is put a greater strain on a family already dependent on assistance to survive. It doesn't deter additional births (especially since access to abortion is increasingly limited for women in poverty).
Secondly, I love (as always) how this is all about telling women to "stop having kids." As if women with partners get pregnant on their own. And I also love (as always) how assistance is misrepresented as giving "her more money." An increase in assistance after the birth of another child is money for that child, not for "her."
Finally: Yes, Rand Paul, yes indeed there are "all kinds of ways to stop having kids." One of them is access to abortion. Maybe you should try supporting that, you shithead.
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