One thing I would enact:
Everyone MUST pass an extremely stringent exam/test to be allowed to have children.
1. Single parents are not allowed. (This is harsh, but ideally a child needs both parents.)
2. You and your partner MUST be able to pass a finance test, showing that you can properly afford to raise a child, and supply it with EVERYTHING it needs.(Sorry, your job at McDonald's won't be sufficient.)
3. You and your partner MUST pass a psychological exam, showing that you have the proper mental capacity to raise a child with love, and care. If this test is failed, a therapist/counselor will be supplied free of charge to help you pass.(This test is also to see if you have a predisposition towards violence, or emotional outbursts that could be considered harmful to a child's development.)
4. No physical punishment of ANY kind is allowed to be used on the child, so you and your partner MUST pass a course on how to properly discipline a child, without being physical. (This includes spanking.)
5. You and your partner's schedules must be examined to see if you will be able to provide enough of your time to take care of the child, so as to ensure the child will NOT be neglected.(If you cannot find the time, an adviser will be supplied free of charge to help you organize your schedule to meet the requirements.)
We have similar screening processes for adoption and foster parents... I think if we applied similar tests/exams to everyone, we could prevent a lot of future convicts.
Obviously, this doesn't factor in human stupidity error, and people will still accidentally have kids.
Suggestions to help with this:
1. Make the morning after pill available over the counter. (It is NOT an abortion pill.)
2. Make all birth control free.
3. Make condoms free. (Also, make it very clear to everyone that two condoms INCREASES the likelihood of them breaking, resulting in an accidental pregnancy, due to the increased friction between the two condoms.)
(And before anyone gets outraged at me suggesting all this, keep in mind that it's purely hypothetical. I'm not factoring in all the possible negative aspects of enforcing something like this, just having some fun.)