Notes: The Politics of Procreative Freedom

The Politics of Child Support, by Jocelyn Elise Crowley (Assistant Professor of Public Policy in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers), The State University of New Jersey.
 http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Child-Support-America/dp/0521535115/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301085977&sr=8-1

"Defiant Dads": Father's Rights Activists in America

Paternity Fraud: Any child born into that marriage (even if it's another man's biological child) is automatically the responsibity of both man and woman in marriage. 7 (Sheldon, Sally. 2003.  Unwilling Fathers and Abortion: Terminating Men's Child Support Obligations?" Modern Law Review 66 (2): 175-94.)  In the past, states have made non-biological "fathers" responsible with arguments presuming a continuity of parenting is good for the child p. 7.  Currently, some states are reconsidering these positions. [which ones].

non-marital birth rates: 1950: 14.1 PER 1000;  2004: 46.1, WHICH IS 35.8% OF ALL BIRTHS. 1 million,  475 thousand, 189 out-of-wedlock births in 2004 (how many of these were births without the commitment or the consent of the sperm doner.)

2008:From CDC (center for disease control and prevention)

• Number of live births to unmarried women: 1,726,566
• Birth rate for unmarried women: 52.5 births per 1,000 unmarried women aged 15-44 years
• Percent of all births to unmarried women: 41%

Source: Births: Final Data for 2008, table C

"Two parents had created the child, but now the two parents were living apart".  21 [This is the false reading of the statistics, because in most cases two people did not make the decision to have the child, only one did, the woman.  So the pretense is that an accidental production of a zygote is the "creation" of a child, although that is clearly not the case if "creation" includes the decision sphere, and therefor the moral sphere].

Congress first involvement with child support was targeted at welfare families, or those receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (ADFC) benefits, as a way to save tax-payer dollars (Crowley 2003).   Began in 1950 (see for more detail); in 1975 Federal Child Support Enforcement Program: the law imposed financial penalties on mothers who were unwilling to identify the fathers of their children. 21.  Money collected from fathers were reimbursement for welfare expenditures; the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981 required states to withold a percentage of a father's unemployment benefits for child support. 22.  Federal government left it up to states to enforce child support for those who were not on welfare; contempt of court citations were not enforced in most states.

1984 Child Support Enforcement Amendments, as a result of women's groups and women legistators, nonwelfare families were incorporated into the child support enforcement program.  In the fiscal year 2005, the program collected 23 billion for 15.9 millions "families" [do you mean women?].

Under president Reagan, the Family Support Act of 1988 created new paternity establishment standards and provided financial incentives to states to pursue DNA testing.

1988 imposed prison terms.

It has become increasingly expensive to run these programs. The states lost 87 million in 2000.  By 2002 the Federal government was losing approximately 2.3 billion and the states were losing a total of 463 million.