Maria Magdalena van Beethoven would have approved...

Paying pregnant women not to have abortions

The governor of the Lombardy province of northern Italy introduced a policy that would offer pregnant women $5,500 (€4,500) not to end their pregnancies, the BBC reports. Under the policy, established by governor Roberto Formigoni, only pregnant women facing severe economic hardship would be eligible for the payment.

Formigoni has allotted $6.1 million (€5 million) to the program, which would distribute cash to eligible women in monthly payments of about $300 (€250) for 18 months.
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Yet critics have condemned the plan as "propaganda" — pointing out that there is only sufficient funding for fewer 1,200 women. They also point out that while it may offer immediate help to pregnant women facing financial struggles, it ultimately offers a short-term solution to what is a long-term, life-altering decision.

So what if there is only funding for 1,200 women? The assistance would have been well worth it even if it is funding only ONE woman. If everyone adopted the kind of principle in extending assistance that these critics are alluding to, then all assistance to the needy would have to be considered "propaganda".

According to this source, there is an approximate 120,000 officially-induced abortions in Italy per year. Now had a policy earmarked sufficient funds for all those destitute mothers, I doubt if the critics would still have the gall to cry out "propaganda", yet most certainly they would have torn out their hair and jumped through the roof. On the other hand they would have danced the night away if a policy were established to fund massive abortions.

It seems that these people are not only critics but fortune-tellers as well. It is doubly disingenuous for them to label the assistance "a short-term solution to what is a long-term, life-altering decision", clearly premised on the notion that they can predict with uncanny accuracy the miserable future of poor mothers and their doomed-to-fail babies more than anyone else. Good thing these pro-aborts were not around when Beethoven was about to be born.

At any rate, any decision no matter how big or small, carries with it some "life-altering" consequences, but only if one is allowed to retain life in the first place. No doubt in this case it is a better decision to be a "propagandist", rather than be a pessimistic crystal-ball gazer who would automatically deny hope to the likes of Beethoven and his mother.

Un saluto al Formigoni, Dio la benedice!
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