If you are unaware that the General Assembly has spent a lot of time and energy “protecting the unborn,” I want to welcome you back from wherever you have been. Parenthetically, you may be wondering about job creation activity. Don’t worry – you didn’t miss a thing. In fact, the only thing our leaders did in that regard is to limit or eliminate unemployment insurance benefits.

You may also be unaware that our leaders have been exhibiting an ideological quirk – they will go to great lengths and don’t mind intruding on the family when the unborn are concerned but quickly lose interest in helping children once they are in evidence.

Just one example is a Senate proposal to cut back on Medicaid coverage for pregnant women, which is virtually certain to increase infant mortality. And then there is the House proposal to eliminate the legislature’s own study commission – the Child Fatality Task Force – which has made recommendations over the past two decades that have led to a 40 percent reduction in the child death rate. In addition, there are a host of proposed service reductions, including those in early childhood education, as well as reduced support for our schools.

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If you have suggestions on what to do about this, please let me know. And it is urgent. Recent reports indicate that North Carolina is the 15th-worst state to be a child, and the 10th-worst state to be a woman. And those reports came out before the current measures being put in place by the General Assembly.