$500 to Not Have an Abortion?

A Texas legislator has proposed that pregnant women considering abortion to be offered $500 not to end their pregnancies. For those counting, that is $55.56 a month, $13.89 a week, based on a four week month and $1.98 a day to not have an abortion.

Republican State Sen. Dan Patrick, who also is a conservative radio talk show host, said on Friday the money might convince the women to go ahead and have babies, then give them up for adoption. Apparently the state senator hasn't had a wife or daughter pregnant recently. $500 doesn't even make a dent in the total cost for having a baby. And for women contemplating abortion due to financial concerns, it is unlikely $500 would change someone's mind.

Patrick said during a legislative conference in New Braunfels, 45 miles south of Austin, there were 75,000 abortions in Texas last year.

"If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of those woman, that's 3,000 lives. That's almost as many people as we've lost in Iraq," Patrick said. What exactly that has to do with abortion, is a mystery.

Patrick has filed legislation to make the payment state law, but the legislature has not yet voted on it and early indications are not favorable for the proposed law.

His proposal calls for giving any woman going to an abortion clinic the $500 option, to be paid no more than 30 days after the baby is born and given up for adoption.

Critics say the proposal would violate Texas and federal laws against buying babies, which Patrick rejected as "the typical ridiculous criticism." Apparently state and federal laws can be suspended in a state where the death penalty is carried out at an expedient rate.

How exactly all of this would be tracked and paid for has not been discussed, which is anything but "typical ridiculous criticism." Is the Republican state senator willing to fund traditional welfare programs for the duration of a woman's pregnancy? Will this program house, feed, clothe and give unlimited medical care for these women?

Heather Paffe, political director of Planned Parenthood of Texas, said Patrick's proposal "is very cynical and insulting to women and their families. It's insulting to think women would make that kind of decision so easily," she said.

Whether or not a woman ultimately decides to continue or abort her pregnancy is not a simple decision, and it is a misguided belief that a woman could or would make such a decision based on monetary gains.

State Senator Patrick's heart may be in the right place according to his own personal beliefs, but he is off the mark with this one.