And what a great idea, considering the world’s economy is a bit, oh, shaky as it is. Let’s pay women who want abortions to keep their children because it’s a financially smart move and a great way to spend tons of money.
Not.
However, in northern Italy, that’s exactly what’s happening. Women who opt to keep their children instead of aborting the fetus are being paid upwards of 4,500 euros as an incentive to cut down on abortions. The reasoning, however, is disguised as concern for the country’s female citizens, stating that “no woman should end a pregnancy because of economic difficulty.” Because, you know, there’s not existing help for women who do want to keep their children, but fear how they’re going to manage raising a family with negative economic conditions as it were.
Seems to me that a big anti-choice movement is thinly veiled in coercion by financial incentive, if you ask me.
The payments are spread over the course of eighteen months and the woman has to prove financial hardship in order to receive the birthing stimulus package, and though anti-abortion supporters have applauded the move (unsurprisingly), the concept is being met by harsh criticism almost everywhere else.
Although abortion is legal in Italy, it seems that a subtle movement toward a pro-life stance is trying to take over.
Personally, and many of you already know my feelings about abortions, while I wouldn’t choose to have an abortion myself (under any applicable circumstance), I don’t think it’s the government’s right to take away a woman’s choice in such matters and I think that this “solution” to ending high rates of abortion is only good in the interim. A woman gets paid 250 euros a month for the first eighteen months of her new “endeavor,” but what happens after that? Abuse, neglect of a child that wasn’t truly wanted to begin with? Remorse and regret and resentment because dollar signs seemed like an almost-obvious choice at the time?
Hindsight is 20/20. It’s understandable that many women regret the decision to have an abortion down the road, but I think this policy could potentially do the opposite: force women to regret the decision of keeping a child, whether for personal or more selfless reasons.
Thoughts?
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