In the Huffington Post

By Lara
Bergthold

Executive Director, Lear Family
Foundation; Board Chair, People for
the American Way and the
Campaign for America’s Future 

I am a single parent.

According to the right, I am also a leech on society and pose a danger to my own son.

A new bill proposed by a Republican state legislator in Wisconsin would officially label single parents like me a “contributing factor to child abuse and neglect.” When radio host Alan Colmes asked the bill’s author, Glenn Grothman, to explain himself, Grossman said that women become single parents in order to live off the government, and then lie about it and say they got pregnant by accident.

As far as I know, Sen. Grothman’s the first one to try to write the Single Moms Conspiracy theory into law, but he’s far from the first one to think it. Bashing single moms has been a mainstay of right-wing politics for decades. Perhaps this is because it combines two of the right’s favorite activities: publicly judging the family lives of others and scapegoating.

One of the most enthusiastic purveyors of the Single Moms Conspiracy theory has been Rick Santorum. Mother Jones today put together a collection of some of his early comments on single parenthood. During his 1994 Senate race, Santorum said, “We are seeing the fabric of this country fall apart, and it’s falling apart because of single moms.” A month later, he accused single mothers of “simply breeding more criminals.”

Santorum hasn’t exactly stepped back from his claim that single moms are ruining America. In October, he said that the Democratic Party’s support base is single mothers with a “desire for government.” … Read More