Birth Control, In Vitro Fertilization, Abortion, Childlessness, and Dog Parks
Kevin Roberts new book, Dawn’s Early Light, has been postponed for publication until after the election, but Madeline Peltz read an advanced copy. In Media Matters (https://www.mediamatters.org/kevin-roberts/forthcoming-book-heritage-president-rails-against-birth-control-ivf-abortion), she gives a preview of some of what he said.
This is a rant. I am sorry. I just can’t help it.
I assume that you, like me, have read the items in the list above and felt like one of them really doesn’t fit. Dog Parks?
On page 69, Roberts rails against the Swampoodle dog park in Washington, D.C., for having too much room for dogs to play and not enough for children, blaming this on “the antifamily culture shaping legislation, regulation, and enforcement throughout our sprawling government.”
Antifamily culture shaping legislation? I have some profamily legislation to suggest!
- Maternity and Paternity paid leave for 6 months to a year!
- Child tax credit like the one that went away when almost no Republicans would vote for it. Paying people to have children helps!
- Recognition of the care economy and the amount of work people (read: women) put in to care for children, aging parents, and the disabled. If you feel that raising the wages of people who care for others (e.g. childcare workers, nurses, aides, special education teachers) will encourage childlessness, then figure out real ways to pay family members to do this work (see child credit above).
- Recognize how much work having children is and do things to support parents. Do real things that support carers, for example in Japan public toilets have a seat for babies! So, if you have a baby and want to go places, you can go to the bathroom easily.
- Support schools and education, support libraries, support community centers, support playgrounds, support health care for all, support maternal health, support family planning, support single mothers instead of demonizing them, support support support support FAMILIES not corporations.
And finally, don’t tell me about one park where the dog park is bigger than the playground. Show me that dogs have more space to play than children in all the parks! Show me the legislation that says all dog parks must be bigger than playgrounds.
<end Rant> Thank you for listening.
PS. The New York Times reported this point-prover.
JD Vance says he supports the child tax credit, but conveniently didn’t think it was necessary to vote for or against it.
