An American Life agenda – Respecting Life and Choice providing support for the difficult decisions to come from both.

Pro-Life, Pro Choice. We’ve been having this debate for all 47 years of my life (born April 23, 1972). The main arguments have always centered around two principled positions:

·        The right for a woman to make health decisions for her body.

·        The life of the unborn child, who has no choice in the matter.

Two secondary but essential points have also played a part in this issue:

·        What is the unborn? A baby, a fetus, an embryo, a life

·        When does life truly start?

Three aspects of the issue don’t get as much attention, but are important parts of this matter:

·        What role and rights does the father have, as the contributory party to conception?

·        What are the psychological impacts of the decision?

·        What are the lingering effects on the mother, the father, future children and the families of both?

The Pro-Life demonstrates a deep care for the life of the unborn child and interject a reasonable subject into the discussion, what constitutes life and how do we value it? Treating and valuing life at the beginning is critical to building a positive foundation for the future. Something that the pro-life side doesn’t demonstrate awareness or consideration of, that the pro-choice side seems to understand more acutely, is the impacts of having a child and the needs for health care, support and resources to be a parent. The Pro-Life side also stops their care for live at the birth of the child, for having a child is only the first step. The most important aspects are caring for and raising those children in healthy, nurturing and safe environments. Additionally, if you’re really pro-life, as Jesus called for, you care for the weak, poor, those seeking safe harbor from the ills of the world, through adulthood and into older age.

Conversely, the Pro-Choice side grapples with the practical situation that women face when conceiving a child, the healthcare options for both the mother and child and the life implications of the situation. For many women, the lack of accessible healthcare and guidance to understand and make practical decisions is only met through the organizations that exist on the Pro-Choice side. The Pro-Choice side though tends to stop at the choice of the mother to decide to have an abortion and the position that the unborn’s life shouldn’t be a deciding point due to it being an embryo or fetus. It presumes that the life is only a life if born out of the mother, which minimizes the actual life that exists before birth and dehumanizes the child. It’s an off-putting premise and conflicts with the value of life that is dominate in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It appears that the organizations who support choice are supportive of selective humanity (a woman’s life is worth more than a child’s life). This side discusses the support needed for life, but ignores the moral concerns that come from the abortion choice. 

When you step backwards from the flurry on both sides of the issue, you realize that there are solid points that blend into a real life focused agenda. The need to value life in the beginning, provide supportive services to help people through their choices, understanding and respecting the choices people make, just as Jesus did, and caring for life and its needs through death. It’s the how that tends to get people lost in the dialogue and leads to knee-jerk reactions, policies and demonizing of all instead of real solutions.  

I say this as someone who’s pro-life and understands that the issue is more complex than choice. I’ve been a pro-life supporter since I was a child. As I learned the dynamics surrounding my birth, it wasn’t a certainty that I would be here, even though my mother and father were both young adults from middle class, college-educated successful families. Despite having an abundance of resources, family support and financial capacity, my parents were young, unmarried and faced with an unexpected crisis, me. There were real discussions between my parents as to if my mother should have an abortion. Now, on paper, this shouldn’t have been an issue, but real life never matches what’s on paper. Now, praise God that my mother chose to have me, in spite of my father’s concerns about timing, but the road wasn’t easy upon birth. My upbringing in a middle class African American family had a myriad of challenges and both my mother and father and both sides of the family dealt with depression, frustration, anger and other negative emotions that impact the upbringing. Now, this experience and my faith in God made me into a Pro-Life advocate. I didn’t believe in any exceptions, but I considered a few of the other factors that go into having this new life thrust upon people:

·        Mental Health support if and as needed

·        The financial cost of having the child and realistic support measures to help those who lack resources

·        Parenting support groups and/or education

·        Access to quality health care for all parties involved

·        A rethinking of our social systems to incentivize dual parenting, especially among unwed parents

·        A greater support for life beyond birth, including lives that don’t intersect with my world

·        An end to the death penalty, because if you’re truly pro-life, don’t believe in the execution of life either.

My belief was that we needed to provide the necessary systems in place to help support the life once born was. Now as I’ve become a father, gotten older and experienced three situations where women that I was involved with have had abortions. These life experiences that taught me that the choice isn’t a simple binary matter and you can’t cast judgment upon the one who makes the choice and the ones impacted by them. The journey of life is myriad and deeper than one would suspect, but so the path of redemption, in faith and through God. We make choices and he’s there to forgive us and be with us through it, even when people aren’t.

That personal detour brings me back to this point. As a true Pro-Life person, I have come to understand that I can’t judge the choices that a person makes, neither can any other person, if we’re honest with ourselves. While I don’t want anyone to have an abortion, I want to ensure that a person making that choice has the proper access to quality healthcare facilities and personnel to help them, if this is their choice. I also want to actually see policies put in place to help women have the tools and support necessary to help them, if they do choose life. Some of my policy proposals would include:

During Childbirth

·        Any mother who lacks healthcare coverage will be immediately eligible for either Medicaid or Medicare, depending upon their age – (The reimbursement rate will be increased based upon household income and poverty rate of the mother) – Income eligibility levels will max out at $80,000 for a single parent household and $110,000 for a two parent household

·        Healthcare Coverage will also include coverage for mental health services and/or substance abuse services if needed upon health assessment

·        If employed, the mother will be eligible for a paid maternity leave tax credit or direct monthly financial stipend, depending upon income level - (standard or itemized deduction eligible)

·        The father, upon assuming paternity for the unborn child will have the ability to receive either a tax credit worth either $3,000 for the pregnancy period and an escalating credit for each year of the child’s life until they reach 18 years old (increasing by 15% for each successive year) where they provide demonstrated financial support and parenting time of at least 25% of the calendar year.

·        Both parents would be eligible to write off all child and parent development expenses during the pregnancy period on their taxes, including medical expenses, co-pays and out of pocket costs - (standard or itemized deduction eligible)

Birth through Age 18 eligible

·        Paid vacation tax deduction – A tax credit of 50% of the paid time and benefit burden value for businesses that offer a minimum of an additional 40 hours of paid vacation time for employees earning between $75,000 to $150,000 per year and a tax credit of 75% of the paid time and benefit burden value for businesses that offer a same minimum of an additional 40 hours of paid vacation time for employees earning less than $75,000

·        Non-Custodial parent tax deduction (standard or itemized deduction eligible) – Non-Custodial parents with child support obligations will be eligible for the following tax deduction:

o  If only meeting child support obligations on-time – 25% of the annual obligation amount

o  If meeting child support obligations on-time and spending 10% to 25% of the available parenting time with the child(ren) – 40% of the annual obligation amount

o  If meeting child support obligations on-time and spending 25% to 50% of the available parenting time with the child(ren) – 60% of the annual obligation amount

o  If meeting child support obligations on-time and spending more than 50% of the available parenting time with the child(ren) – 75% of the annual obligation amount

·        Universal Child Care, with cost indexed to parents household income and subsidized with Federal Cost Sharing Model - $0 cost for parents with household income less than $50,000 and graduated scale model of between 10% to a max of 40% of the State’s average annual child care cost for parents with household incomes up to $350,000

·        For parents with children suffering from acute and/or high cost care, they would be eligible for additional health care coverage for their children, via either CHIP, Medicaid or subsided options through the ACA marketplace. Eligibility will be tied to the illness and cost of care required.

Birth to Year 5

·        Expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include compensation for parents (married couples and single mothers and fathers who have established paternity) taking time off after the birth of the child and expend the amount of available time from 12 weeks to 9 months.

·        Life Stipend – for single mothers or low income families (earing 200% above the poverty level or less or meeting other socio-economic conditions) – provides for eligibility to receive a $500 monthly stipend to support parenting expenses

·        Allow Businesses to deduct expenses for providing the following benefits to new parents:

o  Child Care reimbursement account with an employer contribution of minimum 50% of the child care expenses

o  Pay in lieu of work during utilization of the expended FMLA time for

o  Eligibility to claim short-term disability pay for either parent’s use of FMLA

o  On Site Child Care Tax Deduction - 100% expense write off for construction of on-site child care facilities and 50% Business tax credit for personnel staffing or contracting with a 3rd party provider for a company run child care facility

Year 3 to Year 18

·        School volunteer time off credit - A tax credit of 50% of the paid time and benefit burden value for businesses that offer paid time off for parents to participate in school activities and programs – no cap on the eligible hours

·        School participation, supplies and materials tax credit (standard or itemized deduction eligible)– parents will be eligible to write off 100% of the expenses for purchasing school clothing ($450 max credit), supplies, mileage and time for participation in school activities or volunteering in school programming

·        Child Growth and Advancement Tax Deduction/Refundable Tax Credits (standard or itemized deduction eligible) – Parents (custodial and non-custodial) would be able to either write off their expenses for educational, social and transportation expenses involving placing their children in extracurricular non-school based activities to further the development of the child

Pay-for model – The items identified would require raising revenue to pay for the majority of the tax credits. I believe that imposing a 1.5% annual tax on gross revenue of Corporations that earn $300 million or more and a 0.25% wealth excise tax of households that have more than $50 million in net wealth. Those businesses taxed have the ability to recover some of the tax via the investments and resulting credits/deductions as outlined.  

Other acts to address the totality of life and choice

·        Reintroduce the Violence against Children Act of 2011 and expand protections to any child in America, any child in custody and/or care of a Federal, State, County or Municipal Governmental Agency or any contractor who provides children services on behalf of a Governmental Agency, regardless of immigration status.

·        Eliminate the Death Penalty (Pro-Life must mean Anti-Death Penalty)

·        Provide long-term stable & non-violent prisoners in Federal and/or State prisons with a military service option to provide them with a service and educational training outlet for them to serve their term.

·        Increase the Immigration and Naturalization Service budget by $5.8 billion to speed the processing of immigration cases by hiring up to 22,407 personnel and increase the humanitarian aid budget for Customs & Border Patrol by $800 million to increase the services to families and immigrant children.

·        Provide a 5-year supplemental grant to states to increase staffing in their health and human services and child protective services departments to improve responses to child endangerment issues

·        Tie Student Loan Debt Relief opportunities to pursuing careers in Education, Youth Development and/or Children Services, with tiered relief models as follows:

o  100% for teaching in underperforming school districts

o  75% for teaching in all other school districts

o  50% for employment in Children Health, Human Service & Child Welfare careers

o  25% for employment in Youth Development careers

·        Revising Federal Educational performance metrics to expand from standardized testing to include attendance, participation in extracurricular activities, in-class GPA, behavior, parental involvement and life exposure opportunities provided

·        Ensure Federal Funding for Planned Parenthood and related Non-Profit and Medical organizations that support women’s health and choice options for women. 

·        Provide funding grants for Organizations such as Planned Parenthood and Faith Based organizations to implement parent education and skills development programming, to improve parenting outcomes for women who choose not to terminate the pregnancy.

·        Require States to get approval before the implementation of any legislation that reduces the access to qualified medical care services including abortion – from Senator Kamala Harris’s plan.

Being truly Pro-Life requires more than just bringing a child to birth. Being Pro-Choice requires more than just providing the options for a woman to choose and the healthcare needed. Life and Choice are much more complex and require a boarder level of policy and solutions to reach the mutual goals of protecting women, children, the unborn and ensuring quality outcomes through life. Hopefully these ideas will spark a dialogue and turn words into policy and action that helps our greater society. As a person of faith, who believes in God, the focus is to be a blessing upon others and not to yourself alone.