After years of working in the reproductive justice movement and battling egregious attacks on women’s reproductive rights, I thought I was immune to being shocked by insidious policies that punish low-income women and families. Well, I was wrong. I have been not only shocked, but disgusted, by a regulation right here in California that has contributed to keeping families in poverty while also mandating the kind of birth control that poor women use and violating their medical confidentiality.
I’m talking about the Maximum Family Grant (MFG) rule which prevents parents who have financial assistance through the CalWORKs (welfare) program from receiving any additional benefits if a new child is born after they have been on CalWORKs for 10 months or while any member of the household is receiving aid.
It’s no secret that laws like this were passed to thwart the supposed abuse of government benefits and reliance on “Uncle Sugar,” as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee recently referred to federal aid programs. But, big surprise: there is plenty of evidence to show that government efforts to control poor women’s reproduction doesn’t result in low-income women having fewer children — and certainly doesn’t result in curbing their need for state benefits. These reproductive penalties help imprison struggling families in poverty, and children continue to suffer the social, educational and health disadvantages. The fact is, most households receive only about $122 a month for a newborn child, barely enough to pay for diapers. If another child comes along, even this very modest increase in the family’s CalWORKs grant would help mitigate some of the risk of losing everything.
Then there’s the disgusting part of the regulation which allows an exception to the MFG rule only if a woman can prove that the new child was conceived as a result of rape, incest or failure of birth control. And, in the latter case, the method of birth control must be one of three contraceptives approved by the state (which include Norplant, IUDs or sterilization.)
This is just a way to decree that because these women are poor, the state has the right to control their contraceptive choices and force them to decide between disclosing personal and confidential medical information — and personal traumas — or going without the money they need to provide for their families.
But there is something we can do about this. There is a bill in the State Legislature right now (SB 899-Mitchell) which would eliminate the MFG rule. Telling your state legislator that you support this bill sends a strong message that our efforts to protect women’s right to control their own bodies must include the rights of all women, rich or poor, to have children.
I urge all of us who consider ourselves progressive activists to remember that any social progress that excludes those who are economically disadvantaged is not real progress at all.
Lupe Rodriguez is Public Affairs director of the South Bay region of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and chair of the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women.
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