This new New York state abortion law following the March for Life 2019 has brought abortion to the forefront of our political, moral, and cultural discussion. Conservatives are in a frenzy. Instead of arguing against the vagueness of this specific bill (what defines “health risk?,” why can non-doctors make that determination?, among other issues). Instead either by leftist deflection, pure ignorance on the part of conservatives, or the scripted way we are all taught to speak about certain subjects, nearly all of these discussions devolve into the morality and justification of abortion. The common lines you hear are “A women’s right to choose as it is her body,” “What if she was raped/sexually assaulted?,” “Health reasons!” and of course “The baby shouldn’t have to grow up in poverty!”

Ah, normal moral pro-choice arguments regarding abor-…wait what was that last one? Poverty being a reason to take a life? Erm…

Poverty is not, and should never be a death sentence. If you tell me that we don’t do enough for the homeless, or that we need to do away with a permanent welfare state that causes people suffering from poverty to be dependent, or that we need criminal justice reform (that doesn’t just reduce sentences for violent offenders) that keeps people from getting stuck in a cycle therefore causing more poverty, or that we need to somehow keep families together as that is the best chance of staying out of poverty, then I am with you. But a flat out blanket statement that death would be better than dealing with poverty? That is absurd.

The person using this argument for abortion has probably only seen poverty depicted in movies or in mediocre fiction books. They have not lived through poverty, the same reason I am not discussing what it is like to have an abortion, as I haven’t lived through it nor do I have the necessary body parts to. Poverty is not something I have been through either, but I sure as hell wasn’t rich. You do what you need to do to get by (I’ll send you sexy feet pics at $7 each DM me for more info). You use the human spirit to continue on and innovate where needed. You continue to have faith, you keep your family close, and you bond through the tough times. Lessons are learned. Sometimes, although more rare than would be ideal, you climb the ladder and escape poverty. Everyone I have met that was poorer than I was somehow grateful for the experience, because they were hardened by it. They grew up quicker. They are someone a manager would look to as more reliable and determined as an employee. The point is, poverty allows us as a society and mankind overall to learn. Those making this argument that a child born into poverty would suffer and would be better off dead are willing to forgo this individual’s possibility to overcome adversity and become someone. They are going to stop innovative progress of mankind right in its tracks, for with no new faces in poverty, there will be no new faces to innovate. I can’t believe I’m invoking the celebrity card, but think of the most successful musical artists you enjoy (especially in hip-hop and R&B, jazz, and blues) and then learn about their upbringing. Look up your favorite athletes, they likely grew up poor and used their talent and hard work as a ticket out of poverty. Now think of the quality of the product (music or sports) you consume, and imagine that these individuals were aborted. They ceased to exist. All to be protected from the hardships of poverty.

I can already see the leftists frothing at the mouth, ready to pounce because of my greed. Because my entertainment would be slightly less satisfying, I shall prevent a women’s right to choose! Of course, I haven’t watched an NFL regular season game in years, and I despise modern music played on the radio for the most part, so my entertainment wouldn’t be effected much. But what about the individuals themselves? The companies or charities they have created or contribute to? The jobs created because of them. Hell, the hope of escaping poverty and/or inspiration for being the best you can be that they give to millions of their followers. That is a macro way of looking at the micro aspect to counter a macro argument. But to these rabid proponents of abortion, the reasons they give are merely an end to a mean. They disregard the domino effect.

Before the argument goes any further, I challenge anyone with this abortion-to-prevent-poverty argument to define “poverty.” In the U.S., the poverty thresholds (commonly referred to as the “poverty line”) are as followed (amounts in dollars):

So for the person replying to you on Facebook angrily, those amounts are low for them. But for someone elsewhere in the world, that is likely considered rich. Hell, that is the average for the United States overall, that does not magnify places on the lower end of cost of living in the United States where that much money could go further than in quasi-socialist shitholes like the one I live in (New Jersey). If their definition of poverty is living in a home with income below these amounts pictured above, then what do they say about the rest of the world? Should everyone “in poverty” not reproduce? Should all of these economic migrants from central America not even exist? I’m sure President Trump would be happy not having to deal with another caravan. Refugees are generally pretty poor, guess they shouldn’t be alive either. Another humanitarian crisis solved! If the dreams of many modern leftists comes true and socialism is implemented and (in theory) everyone is making the same amount of money, is everyone poor? Is everyone out of poverty and we should now have a bay boom? This argument to prevent children from experiencing poverty creates more questions than answers, just like the law that brought back these spirited debates the ever-so-vague New York Senate Bill S2796. Not only does it cause so many questions and get the morality noggin’ joggin’, but it alludes to a somewhat genocidal way of thinking.

Even in the most abhorrent of “modern” times, debtors’ prison existed, not debtors’ executions or death camps. But this argument that poverty is the reason to have an abortion is a bit worrying, especially when it comes from people who are not currently facing poverty. I can somewhat understand why a pregnant women fallen on hard times could see abortion as an option for their own well-being. But the glee in which abortion advocates proclaim that a child should not grow up in poverty shakes me to my core. You want a dog whistle to genocidal rhetoric, this is it right here folks, straight from the mouth of the pro-choice movement. And I wish, I wish this was just a few obscure lefties saying this talking point, but I can assure you none of my co-workers or classmates or Facebook friends are getting Media Matters DNC talking points. This is a genocidal thought process that has made its way into casual political discourse.