If you want to do something to encourage people to put off having kids until they can support those kids, then I suggest you support candidates who would make effective birth control widely available to women and girls for free. And when I say support those candidates, I mean give them money and vote for them. I would be happy if every high school nurse could perform the procedure to put a Norplant in the arm of any teenage girl who wants one. I would be happy if any girl or young woman who wants an IUD (they're safe now!) could get one put in for free at a doctor's office, and have it replaced when appropriate as well. That way when boys and girls inevitably have sex -- there's no way to get them to stop -- they at least won't end up with babies they can't support. (STDs are a separate, though related, matter.)
I'm normally very lefty, and this is the way I feel about this issue. I could get accused of being right-wing about it, but that's fine; I think I'm talking from both logic and compassion.
There's no way to get people to stop having sex.
Unprotected sex makes babies. Sometimes these are babies people would rather put off if they put any thought into the matter.
Poor people often feel a sense of hopelessness that can keep them from taking reasonable defensive actions, such as getting birth control. BUT, if girls in poor schools were encouraged to, more of them might do it, if someone asks them sincerely whether they want a baby soon, and they say no. Without intervention, they just think that's the expected path for them, because they see it all around them.
Most people really, really want babies in general, sometime while they're of appropriate age. This is true whether or not they can afford them. It's a basic human drive. People will definitely have those babies whether or not they can support them. We can whine about it, but if we're smart, we'll take societal action to minimize the number of *accidentally made* babies.
Whether or not it's fair, the burden of birth control falls on women. (Spoiler: it's not fair.)
Lots of kids don't want to talk to their parents about sex. I know many parents believe it's their right to approve any medical decisions on behalf of their kids, but I believe an exception should be made for underage kids who want birth control and don't want to talk to their parents. I remember how *I* was at that age, and I wasn't even poor. (It's a miracle I didn't get pregnant in high school.)
So, if you want to reduce the number of poor kids, *one* of the ways to do it is to offer free, easily available birth control to *at least* the poor kids, and preferably to *all* the kids to avoid problems all along the socioeconomic spectrum. Yes, it will cost money, but it will cost a lot less than the cost to society of so many people having kids before they really want them.
But for heaven's sake, don't look at kids who get free lunches and think that all those parents wouldn't feed their kids. Probably a large majority would skimp on other things to put food on the table. Things like the electric bill. Things like paying for their own prescriptions.
Lastly: getting grouchy helps nothing. Take some small action. Call your state legislator. Write to the governor. Look at organizations who can help, and give them your time and/or your money.
I appreciate that you want kids to eat. But let's look past the problem right under your nose, toward the root of the problems, and try to help people fix the problems and make their lives better.
/rant