Good intentions yet more abortions

Those who came up with the idea to offer women a generous cash bonus for having another child hoped it would encourage more births, support larger families and reduce the number of abortions. Unfortunately they've achieved just the opposite.

Russia was the first to learn what consequences could such ill-planned proposal bring. The government had announced a proposal to encourage parenthood by paying as much as 250,000 roubles (CAN$11,000) to women if they have another child born in 2007 or later. But as the legislators were debating the proposal, thousands of women who expected their second child to be born in 2006 were lining up in abortion clinics. With fetal rights nearly unheard of, plenty of them considered abortion a small price to pay for the opportunity to break out of poverty thanks to the "baby bonus". Those who hesitated were often pressured by their family members who regarded them as "losers" for "giving birth for free".

One may think that other countries would learn from Russia's mistakes. That if someone comes up with the idea to pay the parents for having another child then at least they don't announce it too early. This didn't happen. When the Cypriot government announced a proposal to pay women £24,000 (CAN$50,000) for a third child, this has resulted in a flood of inquires about abortions. Again, someone's desire to cash in outweighs the baby's right to life. Didn't the Cypriot officials see what happened in Russia? How come nobody thought that such proposal should take effect on the date of the announcement? That excluding babies born before certain date in the future will result in thousands of them being killed before birth?

Hopefully Cypriot authorities find the way to stop their poor planning from causing even more damage. As for Canada - I hope the government comes up with much better proposal. Offering cash bonus for a newborn discriminates against babies that are born day before the bonus kicks in. I'd rather see the government increasing the amount that families with children could earn tax free. A $5000 'child exemption' would save families nearly $14000 in income taxes over 18 years. Supplementary amounts could be made available for families with three or more children to make the tax savings even higher. I think that would be better solution than giving out checks and then clawing back most of the money in taxes.