My Son,
I have decided to write to you in the days that come because I fear that, by the time you are born, I will not be around to greet you. Times are tough, but I wanted to make sure that I had the chance to talk to you in whatever small way I could in case I do not live to see you be born. If the letters I write to you in the following days bring you some understanding of who I was, I will be able to die in peace. I think that it is important that you know what kind of world you live in, and what world would take your father away from you for the simple crime of loving your mother.
You may be wondering why I will not be there to raise you and give you the father you deserve. I am afraid that your birth is not one that is approved by the country you live in. You see, not long after the 21st century began, many of our natural resources ran out. Coal and oil were nearly totally used up, and this left our governments with a choice - they could give up many of their comforts in exchange for their survival, or they could make sure that there were fewer people to use what little was left. They chose the second option.
With that in mind, a system was made to lower the population. Healthcare was made harder to get. In order to stay healthy, you had to get approval - this meant physical evaluations and exams in order to determine whether you were "cheap enough to treat." If you passed, you received free health care, courtesy of our kind government. If you failed, though, you were denied medical assistance, even emergency care. Of course, there were ways around it; if you had an important enough job, or if you happened to be someone in charge, you were automatically qualified for that health care. This made health care so much more accessible and helpful for those in charge. Only 40% of the population qualify for any type of health care. The rest are left to rot.
Another method of population control the government put into place was the "pregnancy pact." While people did not mind healthcare being denied to the living, abortion became illegal again. More and more people became pregnant because they could not get birth control and they could not abort illegal pregnancies. This left the world with even more children than there were before, something that worked against the government's attempts to take down the population.
Something had to be done, so a new law was passed - with this act, only couples in married relationships could legally have children. If a woman became pregnant while not yet granted a license to have children, they would be thrown in jail and killed. Even then, these couples had to be examined and evaluated by authorities, and they had to have a good job and a decent living. If you did not make enough money, you were disqualified. The system put in place many ways to leave out as many people as possible; this way, the population could lower. Fortunately for them, it worked; unfortunately for the rest of us, having children became a crime.
There was one condition our government neighbors allowed for women to prevent being killed for creating life - rape. A woman could state that she was raped, and if the rapist was caught and they confessed, she would be let go; she would even be placed on the universal health care list to make up for it. The guilty man, however, would be executed in her place.
That particular condition is what put me in prison. I love your mother very much; I love you too. You were not an accidental baby we did not want; we wanted to have a child. We had performed the examinations and were being evaluated, and thought we would be approved, so we started working on getting pregnant right away. We wanted to get a head start on our family, so by the time we were qualified, we could get pregnant as soon as possible. Our love was so strong, it only took a week for you to be created. However, our application came back, and on it was stamped the word DENIED. I did not make enough money, and my wife's job was not designated "important to the survival of our nation." Before we could stop, you were created, and we did not know what to do.
I did not want to see you and your mother die; I could not live with myself if that happened. At first, we tried to just pretend she was gaining weight. However, people started asking questions, and one of your mother's friends reported her for being pregnant. With the police coming after us, I knew what I had to do. I told your mother to tell the police that I raped her; I would admit to it. Sadly, we held each other until the police started banging down the door. In order for them to believe I was not lying, I had to sneak out the back alley in an attempt to escape. I made sure to run slowly, so the police could quickly catch me.
The trial was a disaster, and it was not fun at all. I was called many things - "monster," "brute," "animal" - but I still had my love for your mother. I saw her in the crowd, you growing in her belly. They had given her universal health care; I knew she would be taken care of.
With that in mind, I stop my first letter to you. I will write more to you in the future, until I am no longer living. Even though you are not yet born, nor are you named, I still wish to tell you that I love you with all my heart. Please make this world a better place than it is, and make sure that you and your peers do not make our mistakes. I love you.
Father
