Teen pregnancy article in today's Dallas Morning News

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/112904dnccoquadfuture.1b26b.html

Hopefully it won't ask you to register. It didn't for me.

It's the story of a young woman with quadruplets and another baby on the way. She was the daughter of a teen mother herself and HER mother was born to a teen mother.

Here are some snippets from the article:

Cash assistance is hard to come by in Texas because of the stringent requirements. Time limits are set on that assistance based on a person's situation. Recipients must have a job to qualify, with some exceptions, such as a single parent having a child younger than 1 year old.

The federal government sets the poverty level for a family the size of Amanda's at $25,210. If she got a 40-hour a week minimum wage job, she would make $10,712 per year, which would make her ineligible for cash assistance.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is not designed for families like Amanda's, said Shawn Fremstad, deputy director of welfare reform for the Center on Budget and Policy, a liberal think tank in Washington.

"The typical family is two kids on TANF. All they need is some temporary support, so they can pay the rent and meet basic needs like food while they look for work," Mr. Fremstad said. "By and large, we've got a system that's set up to deal with the easier cases."

<end snippet>

Here's the LTTE I have written for the Dallas Morning News:

Where are all those "faith-based initiatives" Bush is always touting? Why can't they (whatever "they" are, he's never specific) help young women like Amanda? I predict a flood of letters to the editor chastizing this woman for her choices and suggesting that she "pull herself up by her bootstraps." Those letters normally make me quite sad, since they prove we've lost our way as a charitable nation that doesn't let other Americans hang out in the wind. But I've decided I'd be happier if I just adopt the Bush-voting mindset. So here goes: Who cares about that woman and her five children? They don't affect me! I got my tax cut! Yee-ha!

There. I feel better now.

<end LTTTE>

Should I send it in? By the way, the amount of money she would make working 40 hours a week at a minimum-wage job is just flat-out SHAMEFUL. $ 10,712???? The minimum wage needs to be raised NOW. You cannot live on that at all.

[fudge stripe cookays]

1. Don't forget the other important line...

"I guess Amanda was enrolled in those abstinence education courses they're touting so highly. Real effective, aren't they?"

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

6. Ah, good idea.

Yeah, boy, that abstinence only stuff really works GREAT, doesn't it?

YEEEE-fucking-HA!!!!

:cry:

[WMliberal]

2. wait a sec, the law says

you have to earn a minimum amount to get assistance?
great plan. the people who need it the MOST won't get any help then. especially when you couple it with abstinence-only sex education...

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

5. BINGO!

We HAVE a winner!

Yes, the laws in Texas are DESIGNED to make it very difficult to actually receive assistance.

And get this: the article didn't even talk about medical care. She is most likely on Medicaid. Too bad her kids can't be on CHIPS. CHIPS is (was) a very cost-effective health care program for kids of low-income WORKING parents. It encouraged the parents to work and was highly cost-effective (they could take them to the doctor instead of wait and present a more complicated health problem at the ER). For every dollar Texas threw in the pot, the federal gov. threw in TWO.

Well last year, the repuke powers that be in Texas FORGOT to submit enough money so we lost out on TONS of federal aid for CHIPS so they had to kick off thousands of kids (oh darn! shucks!) and then they raised the minimum income to qualify. So MORE kids were taken off the program.

It's heartless, I tell ya. And it doesn't even make any sense fiscally, since the parents who have kids who lost CHIPS coverage could just quit working, get on AFDC and get Medicaid for their kids. CHIPs gave them a motivation to work!!!!

This is just one of the many reasons why my skin freaking CRAWLS when I hear lawmakers who pass shit like this beat their chest about how Christian and MORAL they are. My ASS.

[flamingyouth]

3. Clearly, abstinence-based education has worked wonders here

Seriously, I read stuff like this and feel like punching my monitor. :argh:

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

7. Me, too, sweetie.

Me, too.

There's too many like her, too. But at the rate we're going, we just need about 8-12 more years of repukes in charge and we'll be back to poor houses, debtor's prisons and orphanages like in Victorian England.

[fudge stripe cookays]

10. Great minds think alike huh?

:-)

FSC

[elehhhhna]

4. Yes but add the part aboout min. wage.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

8. Ok, I will, thanks.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

9. I didn't see this link originally

but here are some facts about teen pregnancy:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/longterm/stories/112804dnquad_graphic.9702a780.html

It shows that from 1992-2000 (hmm, the Clinton years) teen pregnancies declined in both Texas and the US. Wonder if they have the numbers for 2000-2003 or 2004 yet?

There's more at the link....I hope this counts for a paragraph:

Only 41 percent of teen mothers complete high school.

• 1.5 percent obtain a college degree by age 30.

• One-fourth of teen mothers have a second child within 24 months of the first birth.

• One-third of teen mothers go on welfare within the first year of the birth of their first child.

• Nearly 80 percent of fathers of children born to teen mothers do not marry the mothers. These fathers pay less than $800 annually in child support.

• Children of teen mothers are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade.

• Daughters of teen mothers are 22 percent more likely to become teen mothers themselves.

• Sons of teen mothers are 13 percent more likely to end up in prison.

Source: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregancy

[Dem_4_Life]

11. They don't really care as long as they get what they think...

they want. They think they want to help those people but they never follow up on it to see that they are taken care of. I live in Bexar Co. in Texas and we have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates here. It is so sad you see young children and pregnant girls everywhere. I had a friend who got pregnant when she was 18 and she actually tried to do the best she could. Her parents helped her all they could. When she was 21 and she was living alone with her child making $6 or $7 an hour and paying rent, bills, etc... she tried to go and sign her son up for programs where he could get a better education, and some help with day care costs they told her she was too rich. She made too much money and they only way they could help her was if she had more children. (I couldn't believe it when she told me that they are still telling people that) She looked at the lady and told her off saying she could not believe she was sitting there and being told to bring more children into this world when she was struggling to raise her son the only child she had. She actually did get pregnant before that and realized that she has no place to bring another child into the world and be able to care for it so she had an abortion.

This girl in 2000 and probably also this year voted for *!!! Can you beleive that? I am not friends with her for other reasons but I tried soo hard too convince her that * was against people like her and like all the idiots she says "well he is a good christian"

[Liberty Belle]

12. So true. She'd pay more in childcare for 4 kids than she'd earn.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

13. And she's due with a fifth child soon.

I think she should ask the father for child support. He's paid one electric bill and bought one pack of diapers for four kids in two years or so. And another on the way.

Dude better get about three jobs.

[Liberty Belle]

17. Mpve to LA & put the quads on TV.

I met a woman who has quads AND triplets recently. She's got 'em all in TV commercials. Smart Mama!

[tanyev]

14. Good mention of the faith-based initiatives.

I think that is the phrase we need to start throwing back at them. We have faith-based contraception. Faith-based elections. A faith-based economy. In the words of Dr. Phil, "How's that workin' for you?"

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

15. Oh I ALWAYS use it.

Where are these faith-based initiatives? I ask people.

When anyone is in financial trouble, I say with a smile, "check out bush's faith-based initiatives."

"Oh you can't really figure out WHAT it is or what they are or where they are or what they do? Well, I guess they don't exist! But boy they sure do SOUND good, don't they?"

Maybe the elderly and poor without enough heating oil this winter will feel warmed by the very words "faith-based initiatives."

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

16. I didn't realize what I posted was Part II

Here's Part I, which paints Amanda in a much less favorable light than Part II did:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/stories/112804dnmetquads.9eea.html