Monday, April 18, 2011

Raising kids isn't cheap, but come on

The RH Reality Check's Robin Marty has a piece out on how much it costs for her and her husband to care for their infant child. Marty uses these costs to finger-wag at prolifers since apparently CPCs don't do enough to help women.
Is every "sidewalk counselor" and anti-abortion politician ready to really take on the financial commitment that an infant represents? Or do they want to continue saying a car sear, a jug of formula and a box of Pampers is all a woman really needs?
One, this is an obvious strawman. I'm not aware of any CPC which believes poor women only need those 3 items. Second, Marty has no actual clue to how much help CPCs are willing to give because she hasn't asked any for help. Three, if prolifers aren't willing to pay for all the costs of raising children, does that mean it should be legal to kill them? There are numerous other human beings (the severely disabled, etc.) who cost much more than infants to care for. If prolifers won't bear the cost of caring for them, does that mean it should be legal to kill them as well?

Since my wife recently had our second child, I was perplexed by the rather large costs Marty put on nearly every item a parent buys for their child. She claims a box of diapers costs $40 and lasts a week. Really? Which diapers are those? I can get a big box of diapers at Wal-Mart for under $15 and that lasts multiple weeks.

Marty also claims that parents will supposedly do laundry every day (which will cost $50 per month) because for some reason they won't have enough baby clothes to last through more than 1 day.

The price Marty lists for formula also seems high. Maybe she should switch to Parent's Choice.

Besides inflating costs, Marty makes overly broad claims about CPCs.
I've never seen a center ask for cloth diaper donations, and the initial expense of purchasing is out of reach for a woman who is considering abortion for financial reasons.

How hard have you looked?

You never see a pregnancy center ask for people to donate breast pumps, pads or storage bottles and bags.

Yep. Never.

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