Deadbeat Dad

This week, a Wisconsin judge sentenced a man who was in court for failing to pay child support for his 9 children to “not procreate until he shows he can support his children.”

Uh, I don’t think he can do that.

I’m not a judge, but I’m pretty sure that our freedom to procreate is protected by the Constitution.  Not even an amendment to the Constitution, but the actual document written by our actual forefathers.  If I’m remembering my first semester of law school correctly (and correct me if I’m wrong, lawyer friends), the protection comes from this phrase, “secure the Blessings of Liberty.”  It’s, like, in the first sentence of the Constitution.  Those blessings of liberty are considered our God-given rights, including those in our property - which includes our bodies.  That means that, if we have a right in something, then we can sell it, transfer it, give it away, destroy it, flood it, burn it, grow it, fence it off, not fence it off….it’s our property.  It was kind of a big deal to the framers of our government. 

The way I see it, the only way that a judge can FORCE a person not to procreate, is if that person is putting his or her creation in serious bodily jeopardy, like, selling their children into slavery or repeatedly giving birth to children who are addicted to harmful drugs.   But this man isn’t doing that.  He’s just not paying his child support.

I totally understand that not supporting the children you create is a horrible thing.  Trust me; I am one of a sea of women who never received a dime of child support from her child’s father.  It really sucked.  But this decision is tantamount to forced abortions.  You can’t disallow people from having sex unless they are knowingly spreading deadly disease, or in jail.  There might be other reasons.  I really don’t have the time to research this.  You can’t force people to use birth control, because that could be in direct contravention of someone’s religious beliefs, or even harm their health (latex allergy, reaction to a drug, etc.)  Also, every one of this guy’s little swimmers represents a potential human life that this judge is requiring, under his decision, to be washed down the drain or, you know, washed away from wherever it ends up.  Not in a woman’s uterus is what I’m saying.  Furthermore, you can’t just go around sterilizing people.  That’s what anti-miscegenists, racists, and people with God complexes did until 1977, and if there is a hell, that’s where those fuckers are going.  Last but not least, there are two people involved in creating a child; the judge is taking away the right of women to have children with whomever they choose.  Why are they being punished? This guy might have spectacular genes. 

And I know, most of you are thinking, “Well, I don’t want my government assistance to go to supporting any more of this man’s babies.”  Okay, you don’t get to pick and choose worthy candidates for your government assistance, so stop obsessing about who gets your tax dollars.  Also: you’re just assuming that all of these babies are now and will always receive government assistance. You have no idea whether that is true or not. 

And last, part (not all, but part) of the reason why this man feels free to go around making babies is because a) we, as a nation, do not promote birth control from the time kids start having sex, b) our society discourages birth control among consenting adults in favor of the fairy-tale notion of abstinence, and further, labels women who use birth control “sluts”, and c) our government puts a disproportionate responsibility for the care of out-of-wedlock children on the mothers – requiring them to seek child support in a convoluted and lengthy process with no guarantee of any payout.  And this judge’s decision to force this man to not procreate does nothing to make him a better or more responsible parent to the children he does have. 

I don’t know what the right decision for this man is.  But, just as I would never suggest that judges force people who get divorced, have affairs, get herpes, gamble, are assholes, spend all their time searching for memes to put on Facebook, or even those who blog about the most pointless, annoying things EVER to not to procreate, I also would never say, no matter how tempting, that forcing deadbeat dads to not procreate is the right answer either.