Connect the dots....please

A few years ago, B had to physically restrain me from standing and asking a question of a speaker at a dinner we attended.  The topic was "child poverty".  That subject is back in the news following the release of a report on child poverty rates by federal riding.  "The government (that's you and me, by the way) needs to legislate an end to child poverty," said some idiotic head of some advocacy group on TV today. 

Seriously?!  How can you legislate an end to poverty?  The poor will always be with us, said some sage; it still holds true.  But one of the major causes of child poverty is unwed teenage mothers selfishly keeping their babies.  That's a big problem and what I was going to ask the speaker about when B held me back.  I am sorry I hadn't.  Why is this such a taboo?  Why can no one point out that your average teenaged girl is not equipped to support a child -- especially when the father is not around?  It's the supreme act of selfishness and usually done by self-involved girls who, by keeping their babies, get some respect from "the system". 

Don't get me wrong, I am not talking about self-sufficient women who are able to support their children.  I am supportive of women who can fend for themselves, but not for those who can't.  I am a typical example of how that doesn't work.  The offspring of an 18-year-old unwed teen, I was put up for adoption before I had even been born.  Arranged in advance of the birth, my adoption was a text-book case about how the practice benefitted everyone -- the mother, the adoptive parents and society in general.  Having found my birth family, I am eternally grateful I had not been raised by them.  Instead, I was given a wonderful mother, father and large extended family -- something which would not have been possible had my birth mother not selflessly given me away.

Every time I see a teen pushing a stroller, I feel very sorry for the child who will have been robbed of advantages he/she might have enjoyed had he/she been adopted.  Couples desperate for a child would not have to travel to Romania or China, Canadian babies would be placed in a good home and the young mothers would be able to get on with their lives.