Good old days before legal abortion. 1800s, earlier--unwed pregnant girls committed suicide

[bobbieinok]

Common theme in German novels.

I've forgotten--in opera Faust, doesn't Gretchen commit suicide?

Girls commited suicide or killed baby.

Girls pregnant and unwed were totally outcast from society, often kicked out of home.

Patriarchy simply cannot deal with female sexuality. Patriarchy only sees one option--totally control women at every moment of their lives.

[monmouth4]

1. Seems as though we are moving back instead of forward in so many areas. sigh.n/t

[Tumbulu]

2. we have the tools to identify paternity. We start suing men who father unwanted

At sexual maturity they should have to post $1 million dollar bonds or get a vasectomy. If they impregnate someone that person gets free access to that money to pay for pain, suffering, loss of work, risk of life and help caring for the baby into adulthood. Maybe it needs to be a $2 million dollar bond..

Turn this around.

Stop falling into an old pattern, flip it to making men pay for their irresponsibility.

Used to be they could claim that some one else did it. Now we have tests.

Once it is flipped to the offensive, see how fast things change.

[delisen]

3. Great Post.

[Tumbulu]

8. thanks, I think that we must change the talking points.

[alittlelark]

4. Thank You for Useful Ideas !!!

[Tumbulu]

9. thanks

[fescuerescue]

6. Lots of 13 year olds have access to $2 million

Sounds like a great plan.

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. Ha!

[HipChick]

5. A lot of them were put into Mental Institutions

I remember a case, where both the mother and son were raised in one...

[IcyPeas]

7. and then there were the Magdalene Laundries ... and this is much more recent history

the place for "fallen women"

Finnegan wrote that based on historical records, the religious institutes had motivations other than simply wanting to curtail prostitution; these multiple motivations led to the multiplication of these facilities.[11] According to Finnegan, as the motivations started to range from a need to maintain social and moral order within the bounds of patriarchal structure, to a desire to continue profiting from a free workforce, Magdalen laundries became a part of a large structure of suppression.[11] With the multiplication of these institutions and the subsequent and "dramatic rise" in the number of beds available within them, Finnegan wrote that the need to staff the laundries "became increasingly urgent".[11] This urgency, Finnegan claims, resulted in a new definition of "fallen" women, one that was much less precise and was expanding to include any women who appeared to challenge traditional notions of Irish morality. She further asserted that this new definition resulted in even more suffering, "especially among those increasing numbers who were not prostitutes but unmarried mothers – forced to give up their babies as well as their lives".[12][13] And as this concept of "fallen" expanded, so did the facilities, in both physical size and role in society.

Women were branded as both a mother and a criminal if they happened to have a child out of wedlock. The choices the women at the time had were very limited. They had no social welfare system; therefore many resorted to prostitution or entered these mother and child homes, also known as Magdalen Laundries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Laundries_in_Ireland

[StevieM]

10. The goal of the Magdalene Laundries was to ultimately facilitate a coerced adoption.

The mothers were forced to give up their children.

They didn't care how much it hurt her to part with her child. In fact, that was the point--to hurt the woman or girl. To make her pay for her so-called sin.

[bobbieinok]

11. Thanks for comments about Magdalene Laundries. WE MUST NEVER FORGET