On the face of it it is an absurd question. But, it speaks to an often ignored aspect of reproductive rights. The right to have a child when one is ready.
We call it "the right to choose" not "the right to choose to use contraceptives or have an abortion" -- reproductive freedom is so much more than just the freedom to have an abortion, it's an affirmation of the right that all woman must have to make choices about their bodies. To decide when and if they are ready to have a child.
It is just as much of an infringement on that right to say that a certain kind of women or a woman "should not be allowed to breed" as it is to say that no woman ought to be able to elect to end a pregnancy, or to say that no one should have acces to contraceptives.
And yet I hear people saying just this in varying degrees both as a joke, and in seriousness.
Let's talk about the jokes first. These often come up when some kind of terrible parents are in the news for doing something awful to their kids. "Those people shouldn't be allowed to breed!" --it's a way of expressing outrage at the treatment of the kids, it also reduces the parents to a status similar to livestock whose reproductive lives are controlled by others. Can we agree, though, that any state that has control over the reproductive lives of its people is a terribly abusive one? And can we recognize that such preventive reproductive control is not just a hypothetical, but was a reality for many people in America? (and looking abroad we can find other examples, such as in China)
There is another context where this kind of joke comes up, when it's not about a specific person who is a terrible parent, but rather about a whole group of people (twerkers, twilight fans, liberals, tea part members etc.) "People like that should not be allowed to breed" --This is basically the lazy man's eugenics. The way to (without murder) clear the world of people one dislikes is to stop them from reproducing. Again, it's said with varying degrees of seriousness. This is more ugly than the first version since it isn't a matter of protecting specific people but rather eliminating certain traits "from the gene pool" --even though most of these things aren't even remotely genetic. Why say something that implies that they could be? It seems more reasonable to simply wish that all of those people you don't like would drop dead rather than engage in the pretend eugenics implied by these statements.
Now let's move beyond the jokes. "Poor people should not have children." I hear this often, it's unclear if it is just a opinion or a prescription. Let's get one thing out of the way "poor" is a vague and relative term. Are we talking about so poor that you have no where to live and no food? So poor that you lack healthcare for two months of the year? So poor that you can't afford to move to an area with better schools? So poor that you will not be able to pay for college for your child out of pocket? So poor that when your kid in in college they will not be able to study abroad? Well, how would it sound to say all of those kinds of "poor people" should not have kids?
Who is poor? Too often we all have our own lines based on our own experiences. Maybe it would make more sense to say "a woman that feels she is poor should not have kids" -- but, even then, who is saying this? Who is telling "a woman" that she cannot have kids?
There is only one right answer here: "A woman who thinks she should not have kids should not have kids."
The end.
Now we don't live in a world where women always have the acces to contraceptives that they should, or where abortions are safe, affordable and legal in all places. So, it's easy to get focused on those women who have had unwanted pregnancies. And, yes, we should focus on them an help prevent that from happening.
Yet, I know this will shock some of you, but every day poor women decide that they want to have kids. And they do it. And it's not evil or irresponsible or (most importantly) your business.
Single women too, as upsetting as it may be to some of you, yes, they too can decide that they want to have a child and they want to raise that child "without a man" --and you know what? Many of those kids are great wonderful people.
And supporting the right too choose means supporting those women too. So if you don't if you have a list of people who should not have kids, stop pertaining that you are pro-choice. You are "pro-population control" and it's not the same thing!