Then there were the girls who kept their babies. With few exceptions--I've never heard of any, but I imagine they exist--it was the wrong decision. Their lives were ruined. Many never graduated from high school, much less college. Their futures were grim: low educational attainment doomed them to dead-end jobs in the low-wage service sector. Married too young and under pressure, most wound up divorced. Many never remarried, or married stepfathers who barely tolerated their children. Their kids, raised in poverty in families led by single, stressed-out young moms, were themselves likely to repeat the cycle of downward mobility by getting pregnant in their teens
We exist.
Conversely, abortion ought to be mandatory for people under 18. Twenty-five would be better.
My oldest was due on my 19th birthday. He graduated from high school, went in the Army, served for 2 years, went to college on the GI Bill and is now going back into the Army as an officer. His wife is an "Air Force brat," so supportive of his decision. Their daughter is just over a year, the most beautiful baby girl in the world.
My next was born 2 years later...due on her brother's birthday, but a little late. She graduated from high school, had a child, lived at home and worked part-time to get her Associates. Then she got a better job, had a second child, and did night classes until she got her Bachelor's. A few weeks later, she took her boss's job. She owns her own home, and those boys want for nothing.
They are both American success stories...(and so am I, actually.)
Ted Rall, you are actually as incredibly stupid as your comics suggest. The only "mandatory abortion" should be on humans who are post-college, those that lost their minds and never regained them.
