I don’t know how I missed this — Katha Pollitt describes a bill currently in the Wisconsin legislature:
Co-sponsored by two GOP state legislators, Senator Glenn Grothman and Representative Don Pridemore, it directs the state to prepare educational materials that blame “nonmarital parenthood†for child abuse and neglect and “emphasize the role of fathers in the primary prevention†of same. Don’t be fooled by that gender-neutral abstraction “parenthood.†This bill is clearly aimed at shaming and blaming single mothers. “Fathers†after all prevent harm to children, so logically the only parents left to cause it are… yes, those unmentionable women who have the babies without a wedding ring to show for it. You might think that even in Wisconsin it takes two to tango down the aisle, but not according to Senator Grothman, who says, “There’s been a huge change over the last 30 years, and a lot of that change has been the choice of the women.”