What's up
in Michigan?
The state of Michigan is giving a father a choice: pay the medical cost of his daughter's birth or marry the girl's mother.
I can tell you right now which would cost him less.
Gary Johnson was billed $3,800 for the birth of his daughter JaeLyn, The Flint Journal reported in Sunday online editions.
And how much was
she billed? Unless this was rape, having a baby was her decision as much as his - more, given all of the post-conception options women have.
Johnson is not married to the child's mother, Rebecca Witt.
Assuming the child
is biologically his, this means they were fornicating. Sounds like they are shacking up, too.
The Michigan Legislature amended the state's paternity act five years ago to waive birthing costs for a father, if he married the child's mother. A year later, Witt gave birth to JaeLyn. The state paid for the hospital costs because Witt was on Medicaid at the time and is now trying to recover the money.
So married people get to pass along the costs to everyone else?
Jack Battles, the Genesee County Friend of the Court, said the law is an incentive to maintain the sanctity of marriage.
"It's totally up to them," said Battles, whose office enforces paternity rulings, child support and other aspects of family law. Until Johnson can produce a marriage license, "they have to pay."
Sounds like
he has to pay. If they are not married, and he is billed, she is not being ordered to pay.
Johnson and Witt said they want to marry eventually, but Witt said she wants her marriage date to be her choice.
"I don't think anybody should tell me when to get married," said Witt. "I would like to have a nice wedding, and I can wait for it."
Your child needs married parents. You forfeited your moral right to a nice wedding on a date of your leisure when you got knocked up and then kept the child instead of adopting the child out.
Johnson said he understood the state wants to promote marriage for parents but he respects Witt's position. "It's a woman's dream to have the best wedding she can have," he said.
We all want something. But when we drag kids into it, our wants need to wait behind their needs.
Silly immoral people having babies ... seems like the bill should be split 50-50 unless one or both sign their parental rights away. Maybe someday our society will put the welfare of children above the whims of their stupid parents. oh I've always dreamed of a fancy expensive dress and I want my daddy to walk me down the isle to Canon in D, as soon as I lose all this baby weight - poor child - wonder if his parents will ever think of him before themselves?
ReplyDeleteCan anyone explain why it is ALWAYS the fathers fault and responsibility? Millions of willing women fornicating and yet it always men who pay the price. A woman can when she finds out she is pregnant, kill the child over the objections of the father who has no rights, adopt the baby away for profit over the objections of the father who has no rights, dump the child at any clinic, hospital, police station, or social work center with no repercussions for herself and over the objections of the father who has no rights, have the baby, prohibit the father from seeing the child, and force him into slavery via child support over the objections of the father who has no rights. Now daddy has to pay for the birth (entirely) as well. Are women in our society responsible for anything anymore?
ReplyDelete