Reply #1: One of my favorite public health projects...

[bliss_eternal]

...used a demonstration of "welfare" as a means to disuade young people from sex w/out utilizing birth control (leading to an unplanned pregnancy, etc).

The public health nurse set up a dry erase board, asking the kids if they got pregnant today, how they would finance it.
Almost every kid in the room yelled out, "welfare." So the nurse places that on the board with any other ideas, such as getting a job. Then there's a discussion breaking down the reality of what welfare actually pays versus what infants cost (and adding in feeding the parent, rent, utitlities, etc.)

Viewing the shocked look on the kids faces was priceless. They couldn't believe how little welfare paid. On top of that, most totally underestimate the expense of raising a child (diapers, clothing, car seats, medical, food, child care, etc., etc.) Most had NO IDEA all of the items babies need and how ill equipped they would be to handle that, until it was all written out on the dry erase board.

I appreciate your cross posting this. It's an important aspect of choice, that should be examined and discussed.

Welfare is abhored by the right. Yet it is a necessity for many women that have unplanned pregnancies with few resources (not just for women of color). The anti-choicers don't deal with the cold hard truth of the reality that awaits women with no reproductive choices. They have romanticized the fetus, and doing so frequently places woman and child into precarious, impoverished situations.