I’ve got two daughters, nine years old and six years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. — 2008
My Take – Mr. President, were your daughters mistakes when you and your wife had them? I assume by your statement that both of them were totally planned, or were you all ‘punished with a baby’? Were you yourself celebrated as a miracle by your mother and father, or were you a ‘punishment’ for their ‘mistake’?
An unplanned pregnancy is a consequence, not a punishment. No-one does it to you but you, assuming that the sex was consensual. Yes, a young girl who gets pregnant is going to have a hard life if she brings the baby to term and decides to raise it herself. But the child is not a punishment.
As the father of both boys and girls, I too am trying to bring them up with values and morals. One of those values will be respect for human life and knowledge that no child is unwelcome in this world. Maybe there is a rational reason for a young woman to terminate her pregnancy. I’m not going to debate that. What I will argue until my dying breath is that once a child is born, no matter what, that child should be loved and not seen as a burden or a ‘punishment’. If you don’t want your daughters ‘punished’ if they make a mistake, then I’m sure there are plenty of people who would be happy to adopt, love, and nurture what you consider a ‘punishment’.
DaddyBear’s Den 
L Mac
/ October 5, 2012Thank you so much for your post. Should you daughters present you with an unanticipated grandchild, I am confident you will welcome their news and love them no less. That is after you find the guy who was responsible and showing him your gun collection.
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heroditus huxley
/ October 5, 2012I cannot imagine a child considered a “punishment.” Each and every child is a miracle, even when their parents mess them up.
That certainly tells the world where his morals are: nonexistent.
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auntiejl
/ October 8, 2012I have three little girls, and I don’t mind saying that adolescence scares me. Our goal is also to teach them morals and values, and to respect every life, no matter how small (unless it’s a stinkbug). I would hope they’d choose to adopt out a baby resulting from an unwanted pregnancy, should that happen. But I would NEVER want them to consider such a baby as “punishment.”
Their biological parents consider them more of an inconvenience than a blessing, which is why they’re now my kids. Yes, having children is hard. Yes, if you’re going to raise them right, it means putting them and their needs ahead of you and yours. But the end result is so worth it. Sometimes parenting is dang hard. Sometimes parenting is frustrating beyond measure. Sometimes, yes, it’s inconvenient, when what you really want to do is go back to bed, stay in bed, huddle under the covers, and read books all day. But I love my kids far too much to ever intimate that they were an inconvenience or a punishment.
They’re the biggest blessings in my life. And I love them to distraction.
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