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The result of all this is children who are much more than traumatized. They are also destructive and expensive. Every social pathology, from violent crime to substance abuse to truancy, is directly attributable to single-parent homes, far more than to poverty or race. Moreover, these are precisely the social ills that demand the vast bulk of government spending, including budgets for law enforcement, incarceration, welfare, health, and education.

Far from demonstrating a genuine concern for children, this entire incident might be seen as one more example, rampant in recent years, of politicizing children and using them to advance political agendas. In fact, one of the striking features of this whole episode is how the social-worker industry (“child protection professionals”) has spun it to rationalize taking more children away from their parents—which, after all, is the essence of their business.

Stephen Baskerville is Professor of Government at Patrick Henry College. The facts in this piece are documented in his two most recent books, Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family (Cumberland House, 2007) and The New Politics of Sex: The Sexual Revolution, Civil Liberties, and the Growth of Governmental Power (Angelico, 2017).

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