Growing up, one mantra in our family was with privilege comes responsibility. By now this is a deeply ingrained personal principle – and one I cannot help but feel fits the recent Supreme Court Decision to end Roe v Wade.
Whether you are pro-choice or pro-birth, the recent decision really impacts women squarely up and down generations. Deep disappointment, shock, elation are some of the emotions I have heard expressed by my American sisters. But practically, how do we take such a sea change and move forward? What happens as the website Politico claims now that ‘The Dog that Caught the Car?’ How do we face our tomorrows with a decision that is now broken into 50 pieces and scattered across the states of our deeply divided country? How do you go forward in regulating deeply personal matters, and now that this edict is here? What is the responsibility that goes with the privilege of ruling judgments that have real impact and sow real discord, not to mention have real consequences?
For surely, if you are pro-birth, you are pro-child, pro-mother, pro-family. What can women and families expect in states that are pro-birth? As we run up to the 2022 election, we can start by asking our lawmakers specifically what are your values – how will you fill up the new void created after 50 years of women taking personal responsibility for their choices?
According to Janet Currie and Nancy Reichman, authors of Policies to Promote Child Health, we have a “crisis response” mentality that doesn’t focus on prevention and often precludes implementing policies in ways that would let us thoughtfully evaluate their efficacy. The authors say a serious obstacle to improving U.S. children’s health is the fragmentation of responsibility between families and multiple layers of government.
The end of Roe v Wade in many states throws this concept of fragmentation of responsibility between families and government into high gear. When running for office all lawmakers should have to answer a basic questionnaire. 1. Specifically what pre-natal programs do you support? 2. Specifically what programs do you support to care for mother and child during and after birth? 3. What does the hospital care look like? 4. Do your plans include monetary benefits to help purchase, diapers, formula, baby food for families who cannot afford the basic supplies? 5. Do your plans include post-natal mental health benefits for young or poor parents? 6. What about funding for Head Start, and state-funded preschool so all children head into elementary school with a running start? As it turns out, this page of questions could fill up the entire newspaper when we look at the life of a child from birth to adulthood. But you get the point, that this is serious business. These questions are new imperatives that surely might be handy to ask now that personal choice is superseded by governmental rules.
Where does the responsibility of a pro-birth state begin? Lawmakers, are you ready to answer those questions; specifically and in detail? Do you have the sense of responsibility that comes with the privilege of making decisions that impact all souls born and unborn? The ability to answer might be a new litmus test that helps us all determine if is someone ready and responsible to make decisions that are deeply felt and will change us all for generations to come.
