Fair Start Movement

Category: Corporate & Political Accountability

  • Congress Overlooking the Obvious Solution to Opioid Births

    Congress Overlooking the Obvious Solution to Opioid Births

    Last week, the House and Senate passed a compromise to send the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 to the White House for signing. This coincides with recent headlines that have renewed attention to the skyrocketing number of babies born addicted to opioids.

    Meanwhile, a staggering 90% of pregnancies among opioid-maintained women are unintended. So where are the safeguards to help these moms prevent unplanned pregnancies in the first place?

    TAKE ACTION: Add your name here.

    It should be noted that prosecution and incarceration have no proven benefits to maternal or infant health. We need a public health response. However, efforts have been centered on treatment and recovery. And of that, only 10 percent of Americans with a drug use disorder get specialty treatment.

    A Failure By Health and Human Services

    The Department of Health and Human Services is already working with selected states through the Substance-Exposed Infant Initiative. However, there is no mention of family planning or contraception in its report. While treatment is important, all of these efforts are focused on addressing the problem after the fact. We need to a proactive solution.

    LARC4CO is serving as a model for success for long-acting reversible contraceptive public programs in Colorado. As a member of the coalition, Having Kids is working to replicate that success in more states. But we must ask, why is this model not the federal standard?

    Only about 6% of women with an opioid use disorder report using Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARC), such as an IUD or implant. Because of this massive hole in family planning, children undergo physical trauma at birth and the lifelong emotional and health consequences that result. And the crisis is not limited to affecting children in infancy.

    Opioid Crisis Effects On Children
    • Babies born addicted to opioids endure withdrawal symptoms, which can last for months.
    • The instability that comes with a parent battling addiction also has harmful effects on children.
    • According to one study, “Children of opioid- and (alcohol-dependent parents) have significantly higher rates of psychopathology, as well as more difficulties in academic, social, and family functioning compared to the children of parents without a substance abuse disorder.”
    • Children’s born to mothers who use opioid during pregnancy may face learning disabilities.
    • Abuse and neglect are causing an increase in the number of children entering the foster care system.

    According to the Gooden Center:

    “Mainly because of the opioid crisis… [there were] 30,000 more children in foster care in 2015 than there were in 2012 which represents an 8 percent increase. In 14 states, the number of foster kids rose by 25 percent between 2011 and 2015. The problem became so severe in states like Texas, Florida and Oregon that kids had to sleep in state buildings because there were no more foster homes available.”

    Why are we waiting for babies to become drug dependent before action is taken? Is this legislation’s blindness to the source of problem intentional because of potential difficulty in getting conservatives to support a package which includes family planning measures? I truly hope not. The well-being of newborns should supersede political agendas.


    Helping Women With Opioid Dependency Through Family Planning

    We can help women and children by removing the hurdles to accessing long-acting and effective birth control. By doing so, we can improve lives and better help those struggling with addiction to overcome their dependency without the added burden of parenting before they are ready. The obvious solution to preventing infants from becoming additional victims in this crisis is through a conscious public effort for family planning.

    And what about cost concerns? While an IUD can cost about $1090, the cost of caring for an infant with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) can be upwards of $60,000. Therefore, it makes fiscal sense for the public to support family planning.

    The failure by HHS and Congress to address this problem is forcing more infants to go through the agony of withdrawal every day. More children are being irreversibly affected. Swift, significant action is needed at the federal level to help communities afford women the ability to better prevent unplanned pregnancies.

    This crisis demands that we put children first with family planning that accounts for their needs. Anything less than immediate attention is an acceptance of more suffering of infants and additional trauma on families.

    Let’s invest in our communities by helping parents wait until they are ready and able to provide kids a fair start at life.

    The bill is on its way to the White House for signing. Please ask President Trump and HHS Secretary Alex Azar to use the bill signing as an opportunity to prioritize family planning to stop newborns from suffering. 

    TAKE ACTION: Add your name here.

  • Brett Kavanaugh: Let’s Take A Deeper Dive

    Brett Kavanaugh: Let’s Take A Deeper Dive

    For a lot of people, the connection between Brett Kavanaugh’s ascent to the Supreme Court and family planning is fairly simple: He is a threat to Roe v. Wade, and women’s right to terminate their pregnancies. Others will go further and consider that – given how tainted he is – anything the Court does with abortion will only embolden and further the women’s movement. Both of these arguments are missing something about the Kavanaugh debacle that matters more, for everyone.

    Our transfixing on this story is an example of how power over many is centralized in just a few people, and how they can influence our lives in many ways, both obvious and subtle. 

    Yes, Kavanaugh’s confirmation is an immediate threat to women. It is also a larger reminder of the way the patriarchy dominates all of us – a reminder worth hearing. Just look at Paul Ryan, who pushes women to have more kids in order to fuel the economy. Trump’s championing Kavanaugh is an obvious example of raw power over those who are vulnerable. But so are his family tax reforms, which are designed to encourage a patriarchal family planning model grounded on the values of economic growth and Handmaid’s Tale style national strength at a cost to child welfare, equality, and nature. What’s the difference? Progressives are outraged by Kavanaugh. Yet, they barely noticed Trump’s more subtle family planning moves, ones that will echo his values long into the future.

    While the world was transfixed on the spectacle of a few people in Washington D.C., the world around us continued to change because of the actions and inactions of those in power. The environment became increasingly polluted, and the planet’s average temperature continued to rise. Each minute of the day roughly 250 babies were born into the world (not enough for many special economic interests that wanted more consumers, future laborers, and taxpayers), many in conditions that would lead to their early and unpleasant deaths, or if they survive, to the further destabilization of their communities and regions. Children were born around the world to both the rich and the poor, and that process alone furthered the gap between the two – significantly. Families bore children in whom they would instill the hierarchical sexism we see in Washington D.C. – ensuring its continuity long into the future. 

    Why is it so hard to even think in these terms? The average human alive today is hardwired to think and problem solve in terms of simple and immediate stories, rather than more abstractly. That’s not a good thing. Family planning is the greatest determinant of the quality of life on earth, and the quantity and social quality (through our early childhood development and its knock-on effects) of the people that will inhabit it. While we stared at the sensation of the testimony (much the way Al Gore noted we distractedly gape at the puppetry of Trump), the world was busily and quickly unfolding around us – and not all in ways that are good.

    What’s the solution? We can break the temporal myopia and other cognitive dissonances by thinking of family planning policies in different ways than we do today. There are more matriarchal models that are based on an ethic of care, cooperation, and the restoration of nature. Rather than focus simply on what economic interests want, we can instead begin to focus on what future children need. First things should come first. That change will help us empower future generations, and begin to build real and decentralized democracies comprised of capable and thoughtful people engaged in true self-rule, new communities that are free from the handful of overly-influential people in Washington, D.C. and their centralization of power and control.

    The public figures in Washington D.C., or Hollywood, or in boardrooms or on sports teams across the country, are like the shadows on the wall in the Allegory of the Cave. Learning to ignore and disempower them, to take back their resources and influence in order to empower future generations as the self-rulers of the future, and be mindful of the true world around us and our potential role in it, is our way out of that cave. The Brett Kavanaugh debacle goes well beyond Roe. It is a reminder of how dangerously limited our species is, and how we need to refocus our attention on changing the way we plan families if we want a better future.

  • Tough Questions for HHS. Demand Answers.

    Tough Questions for HHS. Demand Answers.

    As children return to school, many will be participating in the federal National School Lunch Program. The NSLP provides free or reduced price meals and serves 20 million lunches and 11.6 million breakfasts daily. The start of a new school year is good news for the 30 million kids who will have a guaranteed meal – sometimes their only meal. Those statistics are jarring. What can we do to prevent kids from facing hunger in the first place?

    The stated mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is to “enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans”. It got us thinking. And we have a few questions for HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

    1. How does the HHS current family planning modeling actually assure at least a minimum level of well-being for each child born in the United States?

    2. How does that level of well-being reflect every child’s right to a fair start in life, with equal opportunities in life for wealthy kids and poor kids?

    3. How does the HHS current family planning modeling account for the impacts of growth on the natural environment and communities, including exacerbation of climate change and urban gridlock?

    4. How does the HHS current family planning modeling account for the demands that growth places on social service systems like education, nutrition, and healthcare?

    5. How does the HHS current family planning model account for the impact of growth on the democratic processes of the United States, and the ability for all citizens to have a meaningful and equal voice in those processes?

    Want answers as much we do? Add your name here. 

  • TAKE ACTION AGAINST TRUMP’S ATTACK ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN

    TAKE ACTION AGAINST TRUMP’S ATTACK ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN

    The Trump administration is trying to amend our family planning policies in ways that hurt women and children, including imposition of a domestic “gag rule.” They are proposing changes to Title X – the only federal program dedicated to increasing access to contraceptive care for low-income women. It would take away funding to providers who simply mention abortion as an option.

    The Title X changes are an obvious effort to defund Planned Parenthood, who is the only healthcare service for many. The proposed rules are intended to mislead women about their health care options and would encourage the use of ineffective birth control methods. Women deserve facts. The proposed Title X changes will affect people for their entire lives.

    TAKE ACTION – Comments are due 07/31/2018 at 11:59 PM EDT.

    Draft key points are below – feel free to copy, modify and/or otherwise use: 

    • This radical proposal has never been implemented in the United States and it would jeopardize the trusting relationship between women and their providers and put the health of the 4 million women nationwide who use Title X clinics at risk.
    • The proposed rule could increase the rate of unintended pregnancy by eliminating the requirement that Title X clinics provide access to the full range of FDA-approved contraceptive methods,
    • Methods encouraged in this rule such as “natural family planning” and “fertility awareness-based” methods are significantly less effective with typical use than long-acting methods, leading to a higher number of unintended pregnancies.
    • Reducing unintended pregnancy helps families get off to the best possible start. It empowers women to attain their education goals, helping create financially secure and strong families, lowers the abortion rate and reduces the number of people who need to use Medicaid and other public assistance programs.

     

     

     

  • HAVING KIDS ASKS KHLOÉ KARDASHIAN TO CHOOSE BETTER FAMILY PLANNING MODEL

    HAVING KIDS ASKS KHLOÉ KARDASHIAN TO CHOOSE BETTER FAMILY PLANNING MODEL

    Today the national child-advocacy organization Having Kids wrote to Khloé Kardashian to urge her to publicly adopt a stance on better family planning. Kardashian, who gave birth to her first child True this year, recently said she has “mixed emotions” about having more kids with Tristan Thompson after he cheated on her. According to a recent interview, even though she wants a large family, the thought of having more kids with Tristan“scares her.” 

    Uncertain relationships can mean family structure instability. Research suggests instability can cause a number of negative effects on children. Would it be better for True’s future if she simply focused her energy on her daughter? 

    As a prominent social figure, Khloé Kardashian can set a powerful example for when and if to bring more children into the world. The facts are clear:

    Anne Green, Executive Director of Having Kids, said this to Kardashian: “You can make a better future for True and every other child in this world. There is no more effective way to do that than modeling better family planning.”

    Having Kids sent Kardashian this message: We urge you to consider embracing the Fair Start family planning model, hold off on having more kids until you are ready, and then adopt one of the many children in need.

    Having Kids is a 501(c)3 nonprofit nonprofit organization dedicated to reforming family planning by replacing parent-centered family planning models with the human rights-based and child-first Fair Start model.

  • Having Kids Offers Trump’s Child Separation Policy Architect Stephen Miller K For a Vasectomy

    Having Kids Offers Trump’s Child Separation Policy Architect Stephen Miller $25K For a Vasectomy

    Today Having Kids offered the official behind Trump’s child separation policy $25K in exchange for his undergoing a vasectomy. Why? To send a message that caring for children starts with better family planning, and that some folks are just not ready to have kids.

    The Trump administration has been under fire for its policy of separating children from parents who are entering the country.  The media has revealed that senior policy advisor to Trump, Stephen Miller, is the architect behind this egregious policy. Beyond being morally reprehensible, this policy has been described by some as “state-sponsored child abuse.”  Indeed, the psychological trauma of a child being ripped from his or her parents, even for a short amount of time, is shown to be devastating.  Anyone who not only implements such a horrific policy – not to mention, allegedly delights in watching children separated from parents – is not prepared to parent.

    Having Kids is making the following offer to Stephen Miller:

    Having Kids, Inc. will pay you, Stephen Miller, $25,000 on the conditions that you 1) undergo a successful vasectomy procedure within the next two months, as well as 2) publicly announce that you have donated an amount of your choice to a charity of your choice for the purpose helping the hundreds of thousands of children who are victims of child abuse each year in the United States.  

    Anne Green, Executive Director of Having Kids, had this to say. “Someone who has demonstrated total disregard for the welfare of so many children is not prepared to parent.” “Caring about kids starts with better family planning. Everything else is after-the-fact. That’s the conversation we all need to be having.”

    Having Kids is a 501(c)3 nonprofit nonprofit organization dedicated to reforming family planning by replacing parent-centered family planning models with the human rights-based and child-first Fair Start model.

     

  • Urge UN To Promote Better Family Planning After Trump’s Child Separation Scandal

    Urge UN To Promote Better Family Planning After Trump’s Child Separation Scandal

    Today Having Kids called on the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights to prioritize every child’s right to a fair start in life in response to President Trump’s child separation scandal. While decrying President Trump’s policy, the group called his disregard for children and their right to healthy development part of a much larger problem.

    Read the full letter here. 

    Trump’s policy is only one example of how we ignore the right of every child to a fair start in life. 

    • The letter pointed out that without the sensational border crisis the plight of these children, through poverty, trauma, and deprivation, would be ignored.
    • The letter linked the child abuse at the border, and the permanent harm it would cause the children, to the impacts of childhood poverty and trauma more generally, and noted immigration policies would not address these larger issues.
    • The group called on the Human Rights Council, from which the United States recently withdrew, to adopt a child-first Fair Start family planning model, rather than the current model of planning.

    Anne Green, Executive Director of Having Kids, said this: “Now is the time for the Human Rights Council to take a bold step towards creating a better world for future children.” “Now is the time to prioritize the needs of future children and promote the universal value of smaller, more sustainable, and truly equitable families.”

    Take action: Tweet UN HRC High Commissioner, at @UNHumanRights, and politely suggest he act on our request. 

     

  • Having Kids Calls on Elon Musk to Clarify Position on Family Planning and Population Growth

    Having Kids Calls on Elon Musk to Clarify Position on Family Planning and Population Growth

    Elon Musk, the outspoken billionaire who’s been attacking journalists lately, has also been sending conflicting messages about population growth. He’s incorrectly said that “world population is accelerating towards collapse,” but also decried the “soul destroying traffic” of urban centers like Los Angeles and proposed controversial tunneling by his companies as a solution.  It sounds as if Musk wants to increase population pressures and intensify climate change in order to profit from trying to solve them, and exacerbate the massive gap between poor people and billionaires like Musk in the process.

    Today Having Kids called on Musk to clarify his position on family planning and population growth by endorsing a human-rights based family planning model based on the principle that every child deserves a fair start in life. Musk was born into a privileged upbringing, having attended boarding school in South Africa during its Apartheid era, before leaving the country to avoid military service.

    Having Kids is asking Musk this question: Does he believe that every child deserves a fair start in life, with equal opportunities relative to children like his own? Anne Green, Executive Director of Having Kids, had this to say: “Elon should promote better family planning and true social and economic balance and sustainability, not the creation of more consumers and workers to further his economic empire.” “Many of the world’s richest people are calling for systemic change to avoid class warfare – this is Elon’s chance to do the same, and promote environmental protection at the same time.”

    Take action and tweet @elonmusk to politely ask for him to take a stand. 

    Having Kids is a 501(c)3 nonprofit nonprofit organization dedicated to reforming family planning by replacing parent-centered family planning models with the human rights-based and child-first Fair Start model.

  • CONCERNED MOTHER URGES IVANKA TRUMP TO CHANGE COURSE ON CHILD CARE POLICY

    CONCERNED MOTHER URGES IVANKA TRUMP TO CHANGE COURSE ON CHILD CARE POLICY

    Erika Mathews, a mother concerned for the welfare of her child, wrote to Ivanka Trump today to urge her to champion a major federal policy shift that would protect all children.

    Read Erika’s plea to Ivanka here.

    • A recent study from Stanford University has found that efforts to mitigate climate change could yield trillions in economic benefits.
    • The best way to mitigate climate change is by choosing smaller families,
    • Given the study, Erika asked Ivanka to change course from her current preferred child care policy, to instead champion a new federal policy fully funding “529” educational savings accounts through a cooperative family planning system.
    • That would align with the trend toward smaller in the United States, but also augment it by including incentives that would shift the family planning from a focus on parents, to a focus on future children and their right to a fair start in life.
    • A recent wave of news stories have reflected on the clear trend in the United States towards parents choosing smaller families. While many of the articles suggested this trend might harm the economy, there are no studies showing the per capita cost to Americans of reduced fertility.

    Erika had this to say: “Environmental degradation and social inequity are the greatest threats to our children.” “Ivanka should consider championing a new policy. Parents have the right to protect their children’s future and our government should help them do that.”

    Having Kids is a 501(c)3 nonprofit nonprofit organization dedicated to reforming family planning by replacing parent-centered family planning models with the human rights-based and child-first Fair Start model.