[scook]

No doubt, unwanted babies with, probably in most cases, incompetent mothers and no fathers present are a serious problem. Unmarried, teenage girls having babies is, I believe, the best predictor of poverty.

My daughter ran a nonprofit for a few years that took in, housed and worked with girls between around 14 and 24 who were pregnant or had recently given birth. She considered it a great success that no baby was born addicted to drugs on her watch, but even many of the girls she helped went back to their former lives.

It would help if the adoption process wasn’t an abusive excruciating process. Our family members probably have $80,000+ in an adoption and the first two attempts failed because the mothers kept the babies (the first one, they were in possession if the baby and the social worker came and took him back) - a lot of friends chipped in a lot of money to finally get it over the finish line. It took years, and was an emotionally draining experience - it’s amazing that any children ever get adopted.

I don’t think it can be assumed that the unwanted baby production rate would stay linear if abortions became less available. With abortions of convenience easily available, there’s not much perceived cost to getting pregnant, though the psychological professionals that I know say there are usually significant effects further along. There would probably be a fair amount of deterrent if the availability diminished. Protecting people from natural consequences encourages bad behavior, whatever the venue.

I agree that it’s a big problem, but I don’t agree that killing innocent children is a morally acceptable way to solve it. It’s difficult to imagine any creative solution with the fact that any government participation has to make it through the political process where the current majority seems to be tripping over itself to remove the consequences of nearly all bad behavior and spray free stuff on people to the point of actively discouraging them from going back to jobs. I do think creative problem solving is possible, but it’s hard to see it happening given the current political situation.