Kelly and Gil Bates, who already have 18 kids, are about to catch up to the Duggars, stars of the reality TV show 19 Kids and Counting. The Bateses, evangelical Christians from Tennessee, oppose using birth control. With a little help from hormones (and, they say, prayer), they're now pregnant with No. 19, and hope some day to have a 20th child. "It feels more normal to me to be pregnant than not be pregnant," says Kelly, 44. "I'm happy holding a baby." She might be ecstatic... but what about her kids?
These parents are a danger to their kids: Kelly and Gil — who approve of medically aided procreation but oppose contraceptives — aren't just "Bible-thumping nut job hypocrites," says Maressa Brown at The Stir. These "dangerous" parents don't even have health insurance for all their kids. Plus, the children have no privacy or "lives of their own," so crowding them with another sibling "borders on abusive."
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