In which I express my fervent wish that Laurie Roberts will shut up forever about child abuse.

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

There’s a terrible, awful story in the news right now about a Phoenix couple who starved their baby nearly to death. So it’s no surprise that Phoenix’s own Nancy Grace, AKA Laurie Roberts, was quickly on the scene to flare her nostrils about it on her column. I mean, I totally could see it coming but, dear sweet Christ on chimichanga platter is this thing dreadful.

What profound insight does Laurie have to add to this horrible situation? Why, slut-shaming, of course.

The case of Veronica Marie Diaz showcases much about what is wrong with our society, about why CPS is so overrun and just how daunting the task will be as the state rebuilds our child-welfare system. Here’s a 27-year-old woman with multiple children and no father apparently in sight. But, of course, there is a boyfriend.

There’s always a boyfriend.

I certainly won’t defend the couple spending money on other things instead of food for the child but Laurie seems to think that child abuse is caused primarily by poor women having boyfriends instead of reading their Bibles with an aspirin between their knees. I guess that would be one way to stop the problem but it’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

I do wish Laurie Roberts would stop writing about most things but I especially don’t want to hear a damn thing from her about child abuse ever again. (I know she’s not going to grant that wish but a girl can dream.) The reason I think Laurie has zero credibility holding herself up as the crusading avenger of abused children is her frequent habit of supporting and promoting anti-choice Republican politicians. If you don’t want children to be abused and neglected, then you don’t vote for people who make it harder for women to control their reproduction. Period.

You do the opposite of that if you care about children. You support legislators and candidates who are pro-choice. You support abortion on demand and covered by Medicaid, as well as full access to contraception and comprehensive sex ed, as those things are proven to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies. It also helps if those politicians also support things like health care, a living wage, and a social safety net for both adults and children so people can get help if they’re struggling with parenting. It’s also very cool if they’re keen on funding the public schools and not gun nuts. Luckily, there are many such politicians available! They are called “the Democrats”.

If you care about children and want to reduce child abuse and neglect you don’t support anti-choice Republicans even if they’re your nice “moderate Republican heroes” who occasionally vote against an especially egregious abortion bill or to let (some) ladies have the birth control. Even if they promise they’ll join with the Dems to support a less shitty austerity budget (except they appear to be going with the shittier right wing austerity budget after all, oops). Far as I’m concerned, you basically don’t get to say fucking boo about child abuse if you support and vote for anti-choicers.

Seriously.