Tuttlebutt and free abortion on demand

Tuttlebutt was recently elected to the house or the senate and he is not about to wait until congress convenes next month to start making people feel worse than they already do. He wants Doctors to issue death certificates for abortions performed before the twentieth week. He said that it is because life is so precious. What are the chances that he will condemn the Iraq war that has already killed over one hundred thousand innocent women and children who did not get death certificates?

Does Montana give free abortion on demand? I don't have a clue, but maybe someone at Speedkill or Left in the West could find out (I don't know how). I don't think that we do.

I can't say that we don't pay for abortions here, only that the Alliance Defence Fund says that we do in all or most circumstances. Yes, that is the very same group that is screeching about not being able to teach The Declaration of Independence without skewing history to proselytize to our children in public schools.

Abortion is not the only option available to women who may worry about being able to care for their children. They can get Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) for up to five years if they do 30 hours of job search a week. In Montana, the TANF grant is $297.00 a month for a mother with one child and $347.00 for two children. It used to be 30% more, but that money was diverted to pay for abstinence only education. I hear that it isn't too effective.

The selfless thing for a woman to do is put the child up for adoption, right? I heard that Montana had 167 adoptions last year. That would seem to be a good thing, but we have 2,000 children in foster care waiting to be adopted right now.

I know people who march against abortion, but none of them has chosen to give one of these living children a home of their own. It could be because they don't know about these kids, but they are marketed like hamburgers.

In fact, Wendys sponsors the ads called "A waiting child" during some newscasts. One day there was one about an eighteen month old boy who has been in available for adoption and in foster care since birth.

Sometimes I even hear taxpayer funded ads on during conservative radio shows asking people to adopt a child.

Then Digby (did I mention that I heart him?) tells us about exporting black babies to other countries for adoption, especially black baby boys because there aren't enough people who want them.

Then there are people who want to adopt children and give them loving homes but they aren't allowed to because groups like the Eagle Forum say that "Gay couples are a poor substitute" and

"Adoption is not about the parents. Adoption is about the children," the Eagle Forum director said. "Children should not be used to further political agendas. Children are not toys."

Gayle Ruzicka should have recognized the irony of that statement comming from her very own mouth.

Ruzicka's ideas are fine in theory, Salt Lake City Democratic Rep. Roz McGee countered, but thousands of children languish in foster care, unwanted by the married couples state lawmakers concluded would be best qualified to adopt. "We don't have perfectly matched pairs of parents waiting to adopt," she said.
And attorney Suzanne Marelius, who adopted her two teenage daughters before the ban went into effect, says Utah voters' approval of Amendment 3 only complicates life for gay couples and their children. The constitutional change denies gay couples the right to marry and blocks the state from granting any rights "substantially equivalent" to marriage, including custody of children.

(emphasis mine)

I hope they don't have the same kind of problems in Florida because brother Jeb has put the system in jeopardy on the altar of his beloved God of privatization.

More than 150 foster parents, doctors, attorneys and social service agencies say they are owed more than $1.5-million for work they did this spring on behalf of children in the foster care system in Pinellas and Pasco counties.

"I was shocked and appalled," said state Rep. Leslie Waters, R-Pinellas Park, who has been trying to arrange for repayment. "These are agencies in town that are well-regarded, they've been there for decades, good reputations, doing good work. This kind of delay has been a total oversight."

Several of the agencies are among those that banded together to take care of foster children after state government decided to privatize the work it once handled directly through the Department of Children and Families.

But the non-profit company that was supervising these efforts, Family Continuity Programs, went out of business earlier this year, leaving dozens of individuals and agencies holding unpaid bills.

"I think a lot of people got with the program and they just never realized that the risk-sharing included them and their pocketbook," said James Mills, executive director of Pinellas County's Juvenile Welfare Board.

Some say this financial mess could make other local non-profit agencies reluctant to take part in the newly privatized system.

"It will give the prudent individual pause for thought, that how deeply do I want to get involved in this?" Mills said.

Among the unpaid bills: about $80,000 to Personal Enrichment through Mental Health Services; about $30,000 to Help-A-Child; and $98,000 to the Suncoast Community Mental Health Center, all in Pinellas County; and more than $100,000 to the Harbor Behavioral Health Care Institute in Pasco County.

Waters said she has been talking directly to the DCF secretary and other top officials and said she believes 100 or more of the creditors will be paid soon.

Cowell, the foster mom, said she doesn't blame the groups that took Family Continuity's place, the Safe Children Coalitions of Pinellas and Pasco counties. But she said she and others should be reimbursed for the money they paid out in good faith.

She is owed for expenses from last spring, when Family Continuity was phasing out of the business.

The agencies and foster parents have had no luck trying to contact Family Continuity, because both it and its parent company in Maine ceased operating earlier this year.

DCF has been reviewing the bills that should have been paid by Family Continuity, but spokesman Andy Ritter said the agency has sufficient documentation for only 257 of 402 claims it has received.

DCF had a contract with Family Continuity to oversee the foster care system for the two counties.

But the company was plagued with allegations of disorganization and sloppy paperwork.

The agency began overspending its budget in a last-ditch effort to improve its performance and hang onto its state contract. But state officials this spring announced that a new organization would take over.

The state agency says it fully paid Family Continuity, and is not liable for bills Family Continuity didn't pay. But it is nonetheless trying to reimburse at least some of the expenses. Because of state accounting rules, however, it can't pay any of these bills after Dec. 31. The deadline has made many people concerned.