In our latest installment of SMLD, we turn to the ridiculous notion proposed last week by Wisconsin Republican State Senator Glenn Grothman.
The proposed Senate Bill 507, effectively demonizes single-parenting as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.
Section 1. 48.982 (2) (g) 2. of the statutes is amended to read: 48.982 (2) (g) 2. Promote statewide educational and public awareness campaigns and materials for the purpose of developing public awareness of the problems of child abuse and neglect. In promoting those campaigns and materials, the board shall emphasize nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.
Section 2. 48.982 (2) (g) 4. of the statutes is amended to read:
48.982 (2) (g) 4. Disseminate information about the problems of and methods of preventing child abuse and neglect to the public and to organizations concerned with those problems. In disseminating that information, the board shall emphasize nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.
According to the Huffington Post article on the issue, single parents make up one third of Wisconsin parents. This bill, observers of Wisconsin politics will note, is seemingly a continuation of Grothman’s long-standing assault on Wisconsin’s safety nets and on single mothers more specifically.
Grothman has advanced and supported other policies “that make it harder to access prevention-based health services so that they can prevent pregnancy, so that they’re not in a situations here they have an unintended or unwanted pregnancy,” Taylor added.
Grothman is also the sponsor of Wisconsin State Bill 202, which would repeal the state’s Equal Pay Enforcement Act. Last year he claimed in an essay that the “Left and the social welfare establishment want children born out of wedlock because they are far more likely to be dependent on the government.”
In “How The United States and The State of Wisconsin Are Working to Encourage Single Motherhood and Discouraging Children in 2-Parent Families,” he wrote that the government urges women not to get married by making programs like low-income housing assistance, school choice, WIC, tax credits, and food stamps more attractive than marriage.
Hopefully, the state legislature will realize how ridiculous this idea is and quelch it before it leaves committee.