Not Ready To Be A Mom

Julia Gomez/Assistant Opinion Director

Florida filed a heartbeat bill like the one in Texas. It prevents people from getting an abortion after they’re six weeks pregnant. But, if Florida’s legislators think they can scare me into being a mom, they’re very wrong.

People mess up. The condom breaks, you forget to take the pill one day or your partner just doesn’t pull out in time. Shit happens. Life goes on. And you’re not going to stop abortions by forcing people to carry their pregnancies full term.

They’re going to get that abortion. Whether it’s in a clinic with a licensed practitioner or in the closet with a coat hanger, they’re going to do whatever it takes to get rid of the pregnancy they don’t want.

If you genuinely want to lower the number of abortions, start teaching people how to properly use birth control and make it available to everyone.

Banning abortions not only hurts the people trying to get them but the economy too. Women who get abortions and have kids later are not as negatively impacted financially as women who didn’t have access to abortion, said Sarah Miller, a professor of business economics and public policy at the University of Michigan.

There are months where I’m scrambling to afford my $80 phone bill. How the hell am I supposed to afford a child? If my boyfriend knocks me up, I’m screwed (literally and figuratively.)

Millennials and Gen Z are already turning down the idea of having kids because of the amount of debt we’re already in. We’ve watched people get kicked onto the street because of the pandemic. People are drowning in student loan debt, and we can’t even afford houses.

Miami is officially the second most expensive city to live in in the US, and millennials are still getting yelled at for killing off Buffalo Wild Wings. We can barely afford to pay rent, let alone buy mediocre chicken wings.

Yet, older generations expect us to carry on as if none of this is happening. America is facing the most significant wealth gap in history and forcing people to have kids when they aren’t ready will only widen that gap.

I don’t want to have kids in a world like this. I especially don’t want to have kids in a state where Ron DeSantis is the governor.

Instead of spending time and taxpayers’ money on proposing a heartbeat bill, Florida’s politicians could be spending it on reinforcing our cities’ infrastructure for when the entire state is inevitably underwater.

I have some news that might be shocking, but if you want millennials and Gen Z to start making more babies, maybe we should increase the minimum wage? It’s just a suggestion. But I’m pretty sure people are more willing to bring a new human into this world when they’re certain they’ll have enough money to feed not only themselves but their child too.

I get that that might be hard. But we can also lower the cost of tuition, so kids don’t go into crippling debt for getting the education their teachers and parents told them they need to get to be successful. And, while we’re at it, let’s forgive student loan debt so millennials can actually start the process of digging themselves out of financial ruin.

Before I even think about becoming a mom, I need to know that the world I bring my baby into isn’t some dystopian society from a Margaret Atwood novel.

Why the hell are politicians more concerned about whatever is happening with my uterus than the fact that the world is literally burning? What I do with my reproductive organs will not cause the end of the world, but climate change sure will!

Maybe if DeSantis wasn’t so concerned with our coochies, he’d be able to bring down Florida’s COVID numbers. But then again, to do that, he’d have to know how to do his job.

I’m not ready to be a mom. It’s that plain and simple. I can barely remember to take a shower sometimes, and you expect me to be able to do everything for a tiny, vulnerable human? I don’t even know where any of my socks are! I lose my keys at least twice a day, I almost always forget to refill my cat’s water bowl and I pretend that a snickers bar is a healthy and nutritious dinner. My boyfriend is just as bad as me!

I’m not ready to bring a child into this world. And there are so many other people just like me who aren’t either. I have a future to think about and it doesn’t involve having kids for a very, very, very long time. Mistakes happen, and the government shouldn’t punish us or the little being we bring into the world over it. Not only is this bill jeopardizing our livelihood, but the wellbeing of the kids it forced into this world, too. Sex feels good. And politicians can’t force everyone into abstinence because they think they have the power to do so.

People have a right to choose when they want to have a kid. It’s our constitutional right, and we aren’t going to give up our rights quietly. 

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