Since biblical times, the poor have had lots of children. Abject poverty is no contraceptive. But AFDC also serves women and children who are victims of desertion, divorce, abuse, breakdown, and economic dislocation. The current welfare reform fails to differentiate between the two. Innumerable studies of the welfare life have shown that even the most highly motivated single parents have difficulty keeping a job in the absence of back-up systems.
Kids get sick.
Crises at school arise. Do the arithmetic. Even working full time, without help for childcare and typically without health insurance, the numbers simply don't add up. It will only increase destitution. States' rights, once a code word for discrimination and backward social policy, are in vogue again.