Single Mom Protests Dismissal from Air Force

Friday, October 26th, 2012

Rebecca Edmonds, a Wisconsin woman who was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Air Force after receiving an ROTC scholarship to Marquette University, is challenging the military’s decision to dismiss her and revoke her scholarship following the discovery, just before her commissioning, that she was pregnant.  The Air Force has a policy forbidding single parents from enlisting or becoming commissioned officers.  From CNN:

The reason for the policy, according to Air Force officials, is that the demands of deployment and military service put strain on family life and even more so for single parents.

The Air Force accused Edmonds of committing fraud, ejected her from its ranks and revoked her $92,000 scholarship. Her case is currently under review.

Edmonds’ mother, Karen, a military wife for 25 years, said deployments are tough on all service members and their families, married or not. If her daughter were to deploy, Karen Edmonds said, her grandson would be well cared for by an extended family that includes the child’s father and both sets of grandparents.

Edmonds’ mother said she believes the policy discriminates against single women and encourages pregnant single women to abort their pregnancies.

“The Air Force is making an assumption that single parents cannot provide adequately for their children if deployed,” Edmonds’ mother said. “That’s what burns me up.”

Image: Air Force uniform, via Shutterstock

Wisconsin Bill Alleges Single Moms Contribute to Child Abuse

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

A bill under consideration by the Wisconsin legislature would penalize single mothers on the grounds that their unmarried status contributes to social ills including child abuse and neglect.

The state’s Republican Senator Glenn Grothman introduced Senate Bill 507, Yahoo! Shine reports, which contains language requiring the state to amend existing state law “requiring the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board to emphasize nonmarital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.”

More from Yahoo:

The bill would require educational and public awareness campaigns held by the board to emphasize that not being married is abusive and neglectful of children, and to underscore “the role of fathers in the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect.”

Saying that people “make fun of old-fashioned families,” Grothman — who has never been married and has no children — criticized social workers for not agreeing that children should only be raised by two married biological parents, and told a state Senate committee that he hopes the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention board, of which he’s a member, could “publicize something that’s politically incorrect but has to be said in our society.”

For more analysis of this issue from Parents.com, read Julia Landry’s post on Unexpectedly Expecting.

Image: Mother with sleepy baby, via Shutterstock.