You have some wonderful ideas! I’m thinking along the lines of money talks - How about a tax incentive that would not only reduce the amount of unwanted pregnancies (thus reducing the number of abortions), but would also provide financial help to adoptive parents AND put a significant dent in the revenue Planned Parenthood makes from providing abortions. This can be done without criminalizing abortion, while providing incentives for young girls and women to not get pregnant until they are married or older and able to take on the responsibility of raising children. Nobody would be forced into anything, and everybody wins – except for Planned Parenthood, whose demise would be a natural consequence of the results. Bear with me, I’ve never done anything like this before – God just put it on my heart a few years back and out the words came.
A tax incentive for every person in the form of a credit of a set amount each year.
Every person both male and female gets the same amount.
The credit starts at birth until age 26. I chose birth as the onset of the credit because there’s no way to pin down a specific age that a child can become pregnant or impregnate a girl. I chose 26 as the ending age because many experts claim 26 as the age our brains generally reach full maturity. These are just loose guidelines.
The money would go into a special account only accessible by the account owner at age 26 if they have not been pregnant or impregnated someone.
If the “contract” is broken, there would still be an incentive to give birth and put the child up for adoption if the parent doesn’t want to raise it. Half the money in each of the birth parents’ accounts would be retained by the birth parents, while the other half would go to help the adoptive parents with adoption expenses.
Paternity tests would be required unless the alleged father willingly accepts responsibility and signs the birth certificate. If the paternity test comes back identifying him as the father, the money in his special account would go towards the fees for the paternity test. If he is not the father, the female making the claim would be responsible for payment for the paternity test, with the money coming out of her special account. If the birth mother chooses to have the child and keep it, what’s left in the father’s account would go toward unpaid hospital bills (with insurance paying first; although Medicaid would always be the last form of payment as to save taxpayers money). As well would the funds in the mother’s account. If the birth mother gives the child up for adoption, the remaining funds in the birth father’s account would be split 50/50 with half going to the adoptive family and half he gets to keep, just as the birth mother.
The account could be designated to pay for birth control (pills, condoms, etc)., but there would have to be a way to designate that this is the only expense covered, until they are able to withdraw at age 26. Failure of contraceptives would not nullify this “contract.”
Funds cannot be spent at any clinic, office, or hospital or with any doctor who performs abortions. This is due to the ease of which records could be manipulated to show that birth control was being paid for when in fact it was an abortion. It cannot be spent on Plan B.
Males can cash out their account at age 26 if there are no outstanding paternity suits against them. There would obviously have to be procedures in place for in the event of a woman accusing paternity when it turns out the accused is not the father.
Exceptions: married couples younger than age 26 who do not get pregnant until after they are married would be able to collect on their account at the birth of their child.
People wishing to take part in this would need to have a unique identification number that would be used to retain anonymity but also be used to track abortions. Abortion providers would be mandated to report all abortions using this identification number. This way we have a way of ensuring the program works. Also for reporting pregnancies, which will be helpful in getting a head start on placing newborns with adoptive families.
At age 26, whether single or married, if a person has NOT had an abortion (or if they did not impregnate a female who carried a child to term or had an abortion) – the money in the account can be cashed and spent in whatever way the person sees fit. It would be a great starter fund for a wedding or a vacation or to put back for college or future children or…use to help offset adoption fees if the couple wants to adopt.