Human Life and Human Choice in the wake of May 2, 2022’s Supreme Court Leak
How to respond to the Radical Pro-Birth Cultural Dictatorship Doctrine? What should an American Pro-Family Real-Life agenda be?
?May 2, 2022 is a new date that will define a monumental moment in American History. The veil of Judicial “Theocracy” has been pierced in a way that it hasn’t since the original Roe V. Wade decision leak[1] in January 1973 to Time Magazine. The Repercussions of Justice Alito’s draft opinion & the Pro-Birth movement’s pending Supreme Court victory has sparked the fire, anger and outrage of the Pro-Life side, Pro-Choice side, Democratic & Independent elected officials, Non-Trump Pro-Democracy Republicans, Radical Trump Dictatorship Party RINO’s & the respective Media ecosystems (Traditional Mainstream Media, Liberal Mainstream Media, Conservative Mainstream Media, Radical Trump, Pro-Dictatorship Media[2] ). America is divided, the additional division spurred by the draft opinion has only cemented the sides of division and no answer will heal this wound, in addition to the other wounds that are tearing America into two separate and imbalanced nations (Blue America and Red America).
?An interesting and somewhat under-reported position is that Justice Alito, the Senate GOP caucus & media members in the Conservative Mainstream Media and Radical Trump, Pro-Dictatorship Media ecosystem who believe that they can solve our division and unite the country by taking this off the table as an issue. They will just convince Americans to see their side as saving lives, paint the Pro-Choice side as inhumane monsters and the issue will just “Go Away like Magic”. That didn’t work in Trump’s Covid response (stop testing & talking about it and the disease will stop infecting people), his & his son-in-law’s solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (just give the Golan Heights & West Bank to Israel & there won’t be anything to fight about) and it won’t work on this issue.
So, after 50 years of war between the social, spiritual, and political sides of Women’s reproductive health decisions issue and the entirety of my life (born April 23, 1972), we’re no closer to resolution than we were in 1973 and we’re entering a new world, the repeal of a fundamental protected right. Is there a way to develop a Pro-Family, Real-Life response that respects providing support for the difficult decisions to come from both while understanding that unity is not attainable? A path starts with qualifying the main arguments. The fight for either protection or repealing this right have always centered around three 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. (I acknowledge & accept the scientific terminology of the embryo & fetus; I make the personal choice to call the fetus an unborn child or baby through the course of this paper.)
·????????Who has the prevailing right to make the determination of birth, the mother under the right of privacy or the State in the preservation of potential life of the unborn child?
?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, a child, or another classification?
·????????When does life truly start and what is the best metric for determining life?
?Four 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?
·????????Does a society, where most of its population believe in God (Christian, Judaism & Islam), can we allow an unborn child to be aborted and not have negative Spiritual outcomes on the greater society?
I’m a child of this debate and the ramifications from both sides of the issue. I say this as someone who’s pro-life and understands that the issue is more complex than choice. I have evolved on the issue as I became a father and I have grown in my personal spiritual walk, to where I’m still Pro-Life, but I don’t believe you can use Governmental power to enforce the will of the State on the individual rights of the mother. I also believe that being Pro-Life means being Pro totality of life and supportive of policies to support the mother, child and family unit if she chooses to have the child. The belief that as a society, if you believe in Jesus or God, it’s morally and politically right to impose our faith through the law to ensure outcomes that please God, that’s not Christian. While that may feel good, it’s a Spiritual Authoritarianism ideology and inconsistent with a society that requires equality for all and laws that address all constituents regardless of their spiritual background. This is the honest examination that the Pro-Life institutions fail to have with itself. ?
Is this a Pro-Life movement or a Pro-Birth Cultural Authoritarian movement?
The Pro-Life movement expresses significant care for the life of the unborn child and interjects 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. However, the Pro-Life side doesn’t seem to care about, (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 as the mother. The Pro-Life side stops their “love and support” for live at the birth of the child, everything else be damned. As Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said earlier this year, if you have kids, need childcare, and can’t afford it, well maybe they shouldn’t have kids because it’s not his responsibility to provide legislative assistance to help you with the cost[3] . That’s very Pro-Birth and Anti-Real Life Assistance to me. This inconvenient reality is missing from the hymnal of the Alito draft opinion, Texas & Oklahoma’s 6 week abortion bans; Mississippi, Florida & Georgia’s 15 week abortion bans, and the Gnostic Evangelical movement, which is to mandate life at birth, period. The important aspects of caring for and raising those children in healthy, nurturing, and safe environments are unimportant or used as a political bludgeon against middle income to lower income families by this self-purported Pro-Life movement. This side’s position is reflective of a selective humanity proposition (an unborn child’s life is worth more than the mother’s life and the child’s life after birth) that is prevalent in other policy issues attached to the movements overarching agenda. To this consideration, I believe it’s important to classify this self-purported Pro-Life movement as antithetical to Christianity or the valuing of life in our fellow Abrahamic faith cousins (Judaism and Islam) and provide background to this issue.
The Pro-Life movement, as part of a broader role in the White Evangelical Nationalist Theocracy movement, is imposing a Gnostic Fake Christian worldview via the function of obtaining and keeping Political Power & Governmental control to limit personal life and business decisions to limit the accessibility of rights to those deemed appropriate & “American”. There’s a broad array of actions from public health, to raising your child as you see fit to discussing diversity in your business with your employees that are being rendered illegal or punishable in the Radical Trump aligned Cultural Dictatorship States like Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Dakota & Oklahoma by this movement. On the issue of women’s health decisions, the desire of much of this movement is not just to save the life of the baby, it includes the desire to control the life decisions of the mother and impose a Pharisee caste system of rules to force compliance or penalty on those they oppose.
They say this is driven by belief in God, but its not rooted in Jesus’ word or actions. If you’re a Christian like I am, you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and that his love, grace and power are above all. The Gospels in the New Testament tell his life story as he came to be born and live as a man for the redemption of our sins and to expand the gift of salvation beyond Jewish persons to the rest of the world, i.e. Gentiles. At any time, prior to his walk with us, during his walk and since his death and resurrection, Jesus could impose his grace and path onto all people[4] . Jesus has the power and could force us to live as he calls upon us to live and prevent any deviation of choice or free will if he so chose. Jesus could have also instructed his disciples to impose his will through forced compliance[5] , under the sword or in today’s world, the gun. ?The key word is could, because Jesus choses another way, the way of love, grace and mercy[6] , not force, combat or vengeance fury, as is prominent in the Old Testament (commonly cited scriptures to justify inhumanity, discrimination and punitive retribution by the White Evangelical Nationalist Theocracy leading this side of the issue). When challenged by the Pharisees, the enforcers of the way of faith through political power, Moses’ laws, rules, customs and sacrifice, for eating and fellowshipping with the “others” of his time (Sinners, tax collectors, Gentiles & others deemed unworthy), he rebuked them in three ways,
1.??????He wants to show them the way and will engage them as equal humans worthy of respect.
2.??????He was not here to force them to follow his path to salvation, just to share his way with them (“But when he heard it, he said,?“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.?13?Go and learn?what this means:?‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For?I came not to call the righteous,?but sinners.”)
3.??????Nor would he subjugate them to his will. He will show them the way and calls on those who follow him not to judge, but to engage, respect and value others who aren’t on the same path as you. ?
Jesus seeks to draw us to him with loving kindness (Jeremiah 31:3 ), not condemnation and domination. If these people who lead the current Pro-Life movement & believed in Pro-Life, they would 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. They would support policies to help women make the choice of birthing their child with the structural and societal support that Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20 ). If they truly saw all women as equal, then they would respect the autonomy and authority of her life path, for they and she will be judged individually by Jesus, not by the Gnostic Evangelical Dictatorial order and their modern day political Pharisee agents[7] [8] . If the White Evangelical Nationalist Theocracy & Radical Trump Cultural Dictatorship establishment accepted the agency of life and personal choice, they would treat women and those in the Pro-Choice movement as Jesus treated the people in the country of Gerasenes[9] when he rebuked the demons from the possessed man, sent the demons into a herd of pigs who ran off a cliff and the townspeople begged Jesus to depart from them, due to fear. He didn’t try to force the people of Gerasenes let him stay and become his disciples. No, this side isn’t supportive of the life after birth, nor the structures to support the diversity of the mothers and their life circumstances, they just want to impose their rule of this world. That’s not of Jesus[10] and runs opposite of his convent and sacrifice for the greater population.
What does the Pro-Choice side miss in their argument?
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 only. The narrative that life is only a life if born out of the mother, minimizes the actual life that exists before birth and dehumanizes the child to just the position of an embryo or fetus. It’s an off-putting premise and conflicts with the value of life that is dominate in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, including those who support the freedom of choice within the religious community. The promotional narrative of abortion as healthcare absence of other health care services minimizes the larger and inequitable public health options and outcomes for women. The narrative is spun 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. There’s an opportunity to find a moral compass that supports both the freedom of personal women’s rights and the moral policies that can support the mother and family unit if she’s able to bring the child to life. The economic conditions and policies to support the family unit, in totality.
It’s also important to find the moral compass within this argument for the Pro-Choice side because of the political reality of it’s primary voting base. According to Pew, 80% of Democratic voters support access to legal abortion services[11] versus 35% of “Republican” voters. In the 2020 Presidential election, 116,300,598 (73.43% via CCES 2020 post-election survey) of the 158,390,505 voters who selected a Presidential Candidate were members of a Christian religion or faith. In the Christian voting universe, 50,090,987 of them voted for President Biden, equaling 61.64% of his Democratic party total and 43.1% of all Christian voters while 1,909,742 of Christians voted for 3rd party candidates for President, equaling 65.7% of 3rd party votes cast. This infers that a majority of Democratic voters and Independent/3rd party voters who support women’s reproductive health and abortion services are Christian. This is extremely important to not cede the moral compass ground when 57.9% or 29,005,793 of Biden Democratic Christian voters are voters of Color[12] and “Republicans” gained ground with Evangelical Christian voters of Color over 2016 and 2012 (28.2% of Non-White Evangelical voters picked Trump, 69.6% picked President Biden, an increase by roughly 5 points for the Trump Republican voters & their narrative on issues like this). ?
Where do we go next on this issue? Economic Cost of Parenting!
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. Jesus cared for in life and in spirit, life in the totality, not just in the snapshots of time. That requires a much deeper and truer commitment to life through the full existence of a person. This also requires implementation of policies that address the economic impact on Mothers, children, fathers, complete families and lack of modern Federal Pro-Family policies that support the family unit like policy tools to support the Corporate Business sector. Each child you have places a significant financial burden upon your household income, yet the so-called “Pro-Life movement & “Republican Pro-Life” partners have opposed all policy prescriptions to help families meet those financial burdens. The following data is reflective of that cost impact of raising children after birth and how incomes from private and public sector employment have failed to keep up. The annual cost for you to live as an adult or as a spouse, separate of children, aren’t added. It’s irresponsible to impose a life mandate on mothers without family fiscal support tools to support it.
Cost of raising a child
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture[13] , the average cost of raising a child to age 18 was $233,610 as of 2015.?With an annual adjustment for inflation at a rate of 2.2% each year factored in, the lifetime cost of raising a child born in 2022 will be equivalent to?$284,570. Those numbers don't include the additional cost of sending a child to college.
The above numbers?don’t take into account the cost of a college education[14] . Higher education can add to the total for parents who help pay for their children's college costs. How much you pay for college can depend on whether your child:
The average annual cost of a public college (in-state) for the 2021-2022 academic year comes in at $22,690; for a private college, it’s $51,690, according to the College Board, which can easily add $80,000 to $100,000+ per child as an expense floor over the minimum four years it takes to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree (college loan debt relief is Pro-Family, Demand-Side Economic Policy but that’s for another paper). The Pro-Life movement & the White Male dominated Radical Gnostic Evangelical elites don’t have any policy plans to help mothers and families deal with these raising cost considerations. Actually, they oppose Pro-Family fiscal support policies under the guise of “individualism” & Governmental overreach/welfare, actual ways that Jesus would want you to consider when considering how to treat all within your society[15] .
What Do Families Spend Money On?
The estimated average lifetime cost to raise a child breaks down into the following major components:
Costs of raising a child by married families and household income status:
Even if you’re a low income household, the cost to raise one child to adulthood is a significant tab, one that wage growth has not kept up with since our switch to supply side economic policy (1981-2021). What’s notable is that the higher income households have an average per child spending advantage ($146,820 for single parent households and $197,520 for married households) that can set their child(ren) up for an easier path to achieve financial stability and enhanced employment mobility than lower income households.
·????????Low-income married couple families spend $174,690 on average to raise a child.?
·????????Low-income single parents spend $172,200 to raise a child from birth through age 17.?
·????????High-income single parents spend $319,020 to raise a child on average - High-income families spend almost double than low-income families.
·????????High-income married couples spend $372,210 on average to raise a child - Married couples, whose before-tax income is higher than $107,400, spend $372,210 on average to raise their kid.?
Cost of raising a child increase by age - (Source: United States Department of Agriculture)
This is important because the cost of raising a child increases by age attainment. Neither side communicates the economic impact of having children, but the Pro-Choice side would have a stronger argument on the economics of parenting and the Pro-Life sides resistance to any Pro-Family fiscal support (the family unit is a small business). The average?cost of raising each individual child?from birth to 17 years old in the US ranges from?$13,000 to $20,000?every year. As your child grows up, his or her needs and expenses tend to increase as well. The primary factors that contribute to the increase are the child’s education and food.?
·????????From birth to two years old and ages three to five years old, the average cost is around?$12,000 to $14,000?per year.
·????????Between six and seven years old, the annual expenditure goes down to $12,800 per year.
·????????From nine to eleven years old, the child’s body changes in preparation for puberty; hence, the needs change as well. With that said, the average yearly cost for these ages is $13,680 per year.
·????????Then, it continues to rise as they age, from 12 to 15 years old, costing around $14,420 per year. At 15 to 17 years old, the average cost has already reached $14,970 per year.
?
Budgets for different family types
Before we get to wage growth and how that negatively impacts the economic capacity of the family unit to raise children, it’s important to look at the monthly and annual household budget costs for single parents and couples and the increasing costs per child (you start to achieve an economic of scale with the family budget growth rate significantly declining by child number 4) for a typical family unit in Metropolitan Detroit MI. Here’s how monthly budgets in?the Detroit/Warren/Livonia metro area?vary by family size and composition[16] .
U.S. Wage Stagnation – Supply-Side Economics has failed to keep family incomes ahead of the cost of raising children?
Data from the “Identifying the policy levers driving wage suppression and wage inequality” EPI report showed that while productivity and a typical workers’ compensation grew in tandem over the 1948–1973 period, they diverged thereafter, splitting entirely after 1979. In the latter period productivity decelerated significantly, but much more rapid deceleration (or even stagnation) occurred in a typical worker’s compensation. Productivity grew 108.1% from 1948 to 1979, accompanied by 93.2% growth in a worker’s compensation. Between 1979 and 2018 productivity grew 69.6% (1.2% annually) further, but a typical worker’s compensation (wages and benefits) grew only by 11.6% (0.24% annually).
Gap between productivity and a typical worker’s compensation, 1948–2018
1948–1979:
Productivity: +108.1%
Compensation: +93.2%
1979–2018:
Productivity: +69.6%
Compensation: +11.6%
Their analysis[17] quantified that if median hourly compensation (wage and benefit) grown with net productivity (instead of the 43% point divergence between productivity and compensation from 1979 to 2017), it would have increased from $20.48 in 1979 to $33.10 in 2017 ($2019). Median hourly compensation was $23.15 in 2017, a $9.95 shortfall from the net productivity benchmark, reflecting the 43% point divergence under the Supply Side economic policy world, which is extremely Anti-Family, Anti-Parent Economic Interest.
Wage inequality continued to increase in 2020[18]
Despite 4 years of false stories regarding the economic boon of Trump, the final year of Trump/GOP supply side economic policy failures continued to widen the income gap, which hurts mothers disproportionately. Women are paid on average 22.1% less than men (EPI 2022b) and there’s been little to no progress in closing the gender wage gap in three decades (Gould 2022b). Since 1979, the top 1.0% of income/wage earners saw wages grow by 179% since 1979 while share of wages for bottom 90% hits new low.
For lower income households, Supply-Side Macro-Austerity economic policy robbed mothers and families with the financial income to meet or exceed increases in the cost of living and the cost of raising children, as the year over year wage growth for the bottom 90%, the 90th to 95th percentile wage group and the 95th to 99th percentile wage group have all seen wage growth below the net rate of inflation growth rate of 3.29% (see chart below).
In an Economic Policy Institute Working Economic blog article from July 22, 2021 by Ben Zipperer, in citing the 12 year anniversary of the last increase in the minimum wage (July 24, 2009), he noted that a worker paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 today effectively earns 21% less than what their counterpart earned in 2009 ($9.17 equaling $19,074 annually in 2021 dollars) and 34% less than the peak value of the federal minimum wage in 1968 ($11.12 equaling $23,130 annually in 2021 dollars), after adjusting for inflation.
With proof that wages and incomes from all household types except for those earning $500,000 per year have not stayed ahead of the cost of living and inflation, the so-called Pro-Life (Gnostic fake Theocratic Cultural Dictatorship) movement continues all Supply-Side cultish resistance to any Federal or State level policies to provide income supports to families similar to the subsidies provided to the Corporate sector. This Anti-Liberty, Anti-Demand-Side Capitalistic Authoritarian side isn’t really Pro-Life, they are really only Pro-Birth Patriarchal movement. There’s no economic plan to support mothers and families from the Pro-Birth Patriarchal movement except “trust us only, demonize and hate all Democratic, 3rd party or Pro-Choice people and do as we say, it will all work out”. That’s not fiscally sound, it’s cruel, indecent and Dictatorial, it’s the modern day version of feudalism, where women are treated as vassals of the State with no right to privacy, extremely restricted human and economic rights and life choice dictates from “Republican” Pro-Birth Patriarchal Federal and State Governments.
Why this matters to me and what should be considered in this debate?
I’ve been a pro-life supporter since I was a child. My parents weren’t married, there was significant family pressure between the families and my father wasn’t ready to interrupt the plans he had for himself and my mother. There were real discussions between my parents regarding if my mother should have an abortion. Even though my mother and father were both young adults from middle class, college-educated successful families, he ultimately advocated for my mother to have an abortion. As I learned the dynamics surrounding my birth, it wasn’t a certainty that I would be here.
On paper because of the stable family dynamics, 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, despite 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. The toll cost my parents their relationship. My mother’s untreated manic depression, my father’s untreated depression and narcissism, and negative internal family dysfunction (both my mother and father and both sides of the family dealt with depression, frustration, anger and other negative emotions) ultimately contributed to my mother’s death before my second birthday, a disjointed relationship with my father through the remainder of his life (we didn’t speak for the last 10 years of his life) and psychological damage that impacted me negatively until I hit bottom and started treatment in 2012. Yes, I was carried to term, but no one was emotionally, mentally, and spiritually prepared for what came next. It’s easy to scream Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, but the next level of hard work starts after the decision is made.
Now, this experience and my faith in God made me into a Pro-Life advocate. I didn’t believe in any exceptions at first, but life experience educated me to see some of the other factors that go into having this new life thrust upon people:
·????????Mental Health support – Is it available, is it accessible and is the use of it supported.
·????????The financial cost of having the child and realistic support measures to help those who lack resources.
·????????Parenting support groups and/or education.
·????????The intra-family dynamics that can produce tragic turmoil and chaos on the child and the family members involved.
·????????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.
·????????Consider your ability to earn enough money to make a living (via employment, starting/running a business joining the military) and earn enough money to end the year in a better financial position and with less debt than the previous year.
·????????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. As an adult and a father, I’ve also experienced three situations where women that I was involved with (including my first ex-wife) 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 woman 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/Christ. 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, as I stated earlier, I don’t want a Dictatorial Government mandating discriminatory privacy restrictions upon women under any guise, but especially under the frame of “Christian Theocracy” and what Jesus would want. Jesus never imposed his path to salvation upon anyone, he preached to and engaged all, but let the choice in their hands. He could mandate that people follow or else, but he didn’t, so neither should anyone who claims to follow his path. In that line, I want to ensure that a woman making that choice has the proper access to quality healthcare facilities and personnel to help them, if this is her choice. I also want to see policies put in place to help women with the 6 clusters of life activities[19] (see below) that impact their ability to raise their child, if they do choose life:
The Pro-Choice side should integrate these aspects, the spiritual self-awareness of Jesus’ demonstrations of love and grace matched with free will and supportive economic infrastructure policy for expecting mothers who can and choose to carry the baby to term, to delegitimize the Pro-Birth Patriarchal movement’s attacks. ?
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A Real Life Pro-Family Demand-Side Economic Policy Agenda
I challenge the Pro-Birth Patriarchal movement and the Pro-Choice Women’s rights movement to consider movement towards an actual Real Life, Pro-Family policy agenda that infuses real Christ-Like compassion through economic and quality of life policies that reduce the fiscal burden on the family unit and offer a real choice to support life, while allowing for the basic fundamental human rights of women to privacy, equal protection under the 14th amendment, and possibly a human castle doctrine right (a Woman’s body is her castle & she has domanial rights to protect herself from invasive Governmental control). The policy ideas I’m presenting are from my previous paper on this issue[20] and combine concepts from the American Family Plan, the American Rescue Plan & the Build Back Better Act along with ideas from other varied stakeholders in the political, economic policy, social policy and think tank universe. These policy proposals set a table for supporting the choice of life versus an imposition of life mandates through birth and policy abandonment thereafter. They encompass all stages of parenting from child-birth through achieving adulthood and listed as individual Legislation to introduce: ?
During Pregnancy to Childbirth
·????????Health insurance for All Pregnant Mothers Act - Any pregnant mother who lacks healthcare coverage in all 50 States, DC & the US Territories will be immediately eligible for either Medicaid or Medicare, depending upon their age and regardless of their State’s expansion of Medicaid – (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
o??Healthcare Coverage will also include coverage for mental health services and/or substance abuse services if needed upon health assessment
·????????Maternity Leave Support Act - If employed, the mother will be eligible for a National paid maternity leave tax credit or direct monthly financial stipend, depending upon income level - (standard or itemized deduction eligible).
·????????Getting Unmarried Fathers Involved Act - 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.
·????????Childbearing Tax Deductions Eligibility Act - Both parents would be eligible to write off all child and parent development expenses during the pregnancy period on Federal taxes and State taxes, pending State enabling legislation, including medical expenses, co-pays and out of pocket costs - (standard category or itemized deduction eligible).
·????????Adoption System improvements - Provide cost of living and health care support for mothers who choose to give their child up for adoption and modernize the US adoption system to increase access to this option for both childless couples, single adults and mothers to be who choose this path. ??
From Birth to the Child’s Age of 5 Years
·????????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 expand the amount of available time from 12 weeks to up to 36 weeks.
·????????Pro-Life Care Stipend Act – for single mothers or low income families (earning no more than 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 (will require work, college enrollment, skills trade program or military service).
·????????Businesses Helping Parent Employees Act - 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 childcare 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 childcare facilities and 50% Business tax credit for personnel staffing or contracting with a 3rd party provider for a company run childcare facility
·????????Adopt President Biden’s universal free preschool program to all three- and four-year old children in Public School, Child Care Center, Head Start program and add Private or Parochial Educational Center providers as an additional option -?Free preschool will help offset the costs of childcare that families face or help parents providing unpaid caregiving to go back to work. This will directly reduce the out of pocket cost on families and should be capped at incomes below $400,000.
From Child’s Age of Birth through Age 18 eligible
·????????Restore the child tax credit under the American Rescue Plan - The Child Tax Credit, must be restored to its 2021 level $3,000 per child six-years-old and above and $3,600 per child for children under six, codified as a permanent benefit and indexed to chained CPI for annual Cost of Living adjustments.
·????????American Business Paid Vacation for Families Tax Cut Act – A Business eligible tax deduction for every eligible employee equal to the following:
o??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
o??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 Engaged Parent Tax Deduction Act (standard or itemized deduction eligible) – Non-Custodial parents with child support financial obligations and parenting time will be eligible for the following tax deduction:
o???If only meeting child support financial obligations on-time – 25% of the annual financial obligation amount
o???If meeting child support financial obligations on-time and spending 10% to 25% of the available parenting time with the child(ren) – 40% of the annual financial obligation amount
o???If meeting child support financial obligations on-time and spending 25% to 50% of the available parenting time with the child(ren) – 60% of the annual financial obligation amount
o???If meeting child support financial obligations on-time and spending more than 50% of the available parenting time with the child(ren) – 75% of the annual financial obligation amount
·????????Upgrade President Biden’s Child Care plan for low & middle-income families, with cost indexed to parents’ household income and subsidized with Federal Cost Sharing Model:
o??Families with incomes below 75% of their state median income would have no copayment for childcare.
o??Families with incomes between 75% and 150% of their state median income would see copayments between 0% and 7% of their annual family income.
o??Graduated scale copayment model for between 10% to a max of 40% of the State’s average annual childcare cost for parents with household incomes between 151% of their state median income to $350,000 for single parents and $450,000 for married couple parents
·????????Extending Healthcare for Disabled & Medically Challenged Children Act - extend eligibility for additional health care coverage for disabled children or children suffering from acute and/or high cost medical care, via either CHIP, Medicaid or subsided options through the ACA marketplace. Eligibility will be tied to illness diagnosis codes and cost of care required.
·????????Closing the Parent-Child Healthcare Gap Act – Parents with income thresholds below $80,000 for a single parent household and $110,000 for a two parent household, who lack healthcare coverage and their children aren’t disabled or medically challenged will be immediately eligible for either Medicaid or Medicare, depending upon their age. ?
·????????Allow employed parents greater access to the new marketplaces and allow employers greater flexibility to offer — or not offer — health insurance coverage. Remove the employee mandate and replace it with a coverage cost share model for employers with between 10 to 150 employees to buy insurance through the Marketplace for their workforce and split the premium cost between the employer, the Federal Government via tax credits or subsidy and the employee on a two tier model (40% Employer, 40% Federal Government & 20% Employee for up to 40%, FPL/33.3% Employer, 33.3% Federal Government & 33.4% Employee).
·????????Adopt the proposed National Comprehensive Paid Family and Medical Leave Program -?The program will ensure workers receive partial wage replacement to take time to bond with a new child; care for a seriously ill loved one; deal with a loved one’s military deployment; find safety from sexual assault, stalking, or domestic violence; heal from their own serious illness; or take time to deal with the death of a loved one.?This program guarantees twelve weeks of annual paid parental, family, and personal illness/safe leave, and also ensures workers get three days of bereavement leave per year, by year 10.?The program will provide workers up to $4,000 a month, with a minimum of two-thirds of average weekly wages replaced, rising to 80 percent for the lowest wage workers. This is a Pro-Family and Pro-Small Business program.
·????????Modernized Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit?– Increase and expand the CDCTC, by restoring the fully refundable function of the Credit, maintain the 50% reimbursement threshold and expand the allowable family spending categories to include childcare, educational expenses, child development and life skills enhancement with a maximum credit value of $4,000 for one child and $8,000 for two or more children under the age of 15:
o??The full credit is available to families with annual incomes up to $125,000 - maximum credit value of $4,000 for one child and $8,000 for two or more children.
o??Families above the $125,000 income level, a partial credit is available up to annual incomes of $400,000.
From Child’s Age of 3 Years to 18 Years old
·????????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. Another pay-for model could come from the application of enacting President Biden’s
Other actions 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.
·????????Renters Assistance Act – Place a national moratorium for up to 6-months on evictions and utility shut-offs during National Health Emergencies such as the current Coronavirus crisis to ensure housing stability. Requires that renters still must pay up to 50% and no less than 25% of their monthly lease amount during the national moratorium.
·????????Eliminate the Death Penalty (Pro-Life must mean Anti-Death Penalty)
·????????Prison to Life Restoration via Military Act - 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, earn service income and re-enter society with employable skills and savings to build a sustainable life.
·????????Increase the Immigration and Naturalization Service budget by $5.8 billion annually 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 funding to states to increase staffing in their health and human services and child protective services departments to improve responses to child endangerment issues
·????????Additional Student Loan Debt Reduction & Cancellation for careers in Education, Youth Development and/or Children Services Act - in addition to the base level of Student loan debt relief, provide an additional debt reduction and cancellation options by pursuing teaching and educational, youth and children service careers 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 and educational performance outcomes in children’s Post High School Directed Accomplishment - 4 Life Paths:
o??100% Post High School Life Path transition – within 6 months of graduation, initiation of:
·????????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.
·????????Codify the Right to Woman’s Health Privacy & Body Management Freedom as a Statutory Act via Congress, with provisions that restrict States from violating the fundamental rights of woman’s health privacy.
·????????Women’s Health Pre-Clearance (VP Harris’s platform) - Require States to get approval before the implementation of any legislation that reduces the access to qualified medical care services including abortion.
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. The Circle of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must continue to expand to cover all of our citizens, as our citizenry composite evolves and diversifies. The Radical Trump Pro-Dictatorship movement, the White
?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.
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Footnotes:
[1] https://time.com/6173058/supreme-court-leak-history-david-beckwith/ ; https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/05/02/leak-time-magazine-roe-wade/
[3] https://www.newsweek.com/anti-abortion-sen-ron-johnson-opposes-funding-child-care-people-decide-have-families-1673414
[4] John 8:12 ?ESV: Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
[5] Matthew 28:18-20 ?ESV: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
[6] Matthew 9: 9-13 ESV: 9?As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called?Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him,?“Follow me.”?And he rose and followed him. 10?And as Jesus[b ]?reclined at table in the house, behold, many?tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.?11?And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples,?“Why does your teacher eat with?tax collectors and sinners?”?12?But when he heard it, he said,?“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.?13?Go and learn?what this means:?‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For?I came not to call the righteous,?but sinners.”
[7] God’s judgment is based on human choice.?Romans 2:6-8 ?states: [God] will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
[8] Romans 14:1-23 ?ESV - As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
[9] Luke 8:26-39 - 26?b Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,3 ?which is opposite Galilee.?27?When Jesus4 ?had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he?had not lived in a house?c but among the tombs.?28?When he saw Jesus, he?d cried out and fell down before him and said?d with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus,?e Son of?f the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”?29?For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon?g into the desert.)?30?Jesus then asked him,?“What is your name?”?And he said,?h “Legion,” for many demons had entered him.?31?And they begged him not to command them to depart into?i the abyss.?32?Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission.?33?Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into?j the lake and drowned. 34?When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.?35?Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting?k at the feet of Jesus,?l clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.?36?And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed5 ?man had been healed.?37?Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes?m asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.?38?The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,?39?“Return to your home, and?n declare how much God has done for you.”?And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
[10] John 18:33-3 7?ESV My Kingdom Is Not of This World
33?So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him,?“Are you the King of the Jews?”?34?Jesus answered,?“Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”?35?Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”?36?Jesus answered,?“My kingdom?is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,?my servants would have been fighting, that?I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”?37?Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered,?“You say that I am a king.?For this purpose I was born and for this purpose?I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.?Everyone who is?of the truth?listens to my voice.”
[11] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/06/about-six-in-ten-americans-say-abortion-should-be-legal-in-all-or-most-cases/ & https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/05/06/wide-partisan-gaps-in-abortion-attitudes-but-opinions-in-both-parties-are-complicated/
[12] African American, Latino American, Indigenous American, Arab/Middle Eastern/North African American, Asian American, Multi-Racial American & Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander American constitute voters of Color definition.
[13] https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/01/13/cost-raising-child
[14] https://www.investopedia.com/how-much-to-save-for-college-4782579
[15] Mark 12:28–31, Matthew 22:35–40
[16] EPI's Family Budget Calculator - https://www.epi.org/resources/budget/
[17] (Identifying the policy levers generating wage suppression and wage inequality By?Lawrence Mishel ?and?Josh Bivens ?? May 13, 2021)
[18] https://www.epi.org/blog/wages-for-the-top-1-skyrocketed-160-since-1979-while-the-share-of-wages-for-the-bottom-90-shrunk-time-to-remake-wage-pattern-with-economic-policies-that-generate-robust-wage-growth-for-vast-majority/
[19] https://ericfoster-99700.medium.com/quality-of-daily-living-politics-vs-anger-grievance-vengeance-against-others-politics-89490e9fa432
[20] https://ericfoster-99700.medium.com/an-american-life-agenda-respecting-life-and-choice-providing-support-for-the-difficult-decisions-a6989bf79dc2