Scott Wallace, a millionaire Democrat running for Congress in Pennsylvania, has repeatedly touted his stance on women’s rights, stating clearly on his official website that women should have the right to make their own reproductive decisions. Nonetheless, it appears that his support for women only extends to those who wants abortions as he has recently proclaimed that women who opt to have more than two kids should be taxed as “irresponsible breeders” unless they buy a government-issued license to have more kids.
It is no secret that Mr. Wallace has long supported a variety of population control groups. He has given $420,000 to Population Connection, an organization that has been touting the supposed benefits of abortion, population control and taxing people who have more than two children since the late 1960s. Another recipient of Mr. Wallace’s donations is The Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, an environmentally-minded group supporting the idea that birth and death rates should be equal.
Herman Daly, an executive board member for the organization, is an avid proponent of the idea that women who want more than two kids should purchase a reproductive license from women who choose not to have kids, stating that it is as of yet the best plan to limit population growth.
Not surprisingly, Scott Wallace’s bid for Congress has been endorsed by both Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women, both organizations that focus on supposedly providing women with “reproductive choice” by doing everything in their power to make it easy for women to abort their unborn children.
The plan for government interference with a woman’s right to choose how many children she can have should alarm any individual with even an ounce of common sense. This move is eerily similar to the “One Child Policy” passed in China many decades ago. While the Chinese government estimates that its policy, which was terminated a few years ago, prevented up to 400,000 births, it has also had numerous negative consequences. The human rights violations associated with the policy are almost too many to count as the Chinese government forced women to have abortions, inserted women with IUD devices that could only be removed via surgery and sterilized more than 100 million women, in many instances against their wishes.
Children who were born “illegally” in China were often either stolen from their parents or refused documentation needed to attend school, receive health care, enter university or get a job. Furthermore, the One Child Policy led many women to kill girl babies, causing a massive gender imbalance resulting in a country with 30 million more men than women. To make matters worse, the lowered population growth has, not surprisingly, resulted in a population imbalance that will, in 20 years’ time, dramatically lower the ratio of working adults for every retiree in the country. As the nation ages, it may not be able to support its elderly population in future years.
Unfortunately, not many people look to history when deciding to promote policies that seem to them to be a good idea at the time. Allowing any government to make intimate decisions affecting a person’s life and personal happiness is not only morally wrong but also disastrous.
Mr. Wallace obviously feels a strong attachment to his idea that anyone who has more than two kids is an “irresponsible breeder” and clearly feels the government should intervene; however, an important point that he has clearly forgotten to mention is exactly how the government would intervene should a couple decide to have more than the “allowed’ number of kids. What sort of punishment would be dished out if such a couple refuse to buy a license or pay the tax? Would their children be stolen from them? Would they be forcibly sterilized? Would parents be forced to have abortions against their will should the government find out that they are having more than two children?
Giving the government the right to control how many children citizens can have will bring about all sorts of human rights violations. Such a policy has no place in a western democracy.
~ Liberty Planet
