Let’s get hypothetical for a moment, shall we?
Let’s imagine that abortions go away. Either Roe vs. Wade is overturned or God moves mightily to answer the prayers of millions in the pro-life movement.
Since roughly 1.2 million abortions are performed every year, that would mean 1.2 million more babies. Statistically, speaking about 2% of mothers will make an adoption plan which leaves 1,176,000 to parent. Most of these will bring a baby into a family structure that is at high risk for child abuse and/or neglect. Let’s just say that 5% of those children require intervention from child protective services that ends in foster placement. That’s almost 60,000 more children (a 10% increase) who would be introduced into our already stressed foster care system. There are already 130,000 children waiting for permanent homes (that doesn’t include the other 400,000 children who are in limbo) while over 300,000 churches stand by and watch.
Can Jesus look at us and say, “‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.“?
Yes. I know they are older children.
Yes. I know (in many cases) they are abused children or chilren with behavioral issues or children with serious medical conditions.
Yes. I know it’s risky to take on one of these children.
But if the church can’t offer them hope, love, and a family who can?
Most of us are willing to bash the job the state is doing but are you willing to do something about it?
If you aren’t called to foster or adopt, I bet you could do something (cook, clean, babysit, etc.) to support a family that is. If every 3 churches came around ONE family, we could eliminate the waiting children in the U.S.
Then maybe we could be taken seriously when we call for the elimination of abortion.
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Oops…typo. meant to say: “the WORLD as we see it today would be unrecognizable.”
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I think that you have hit on something that is uncomfortable for some Christians to talk about or acknowledge. Your thoughts are challenging, and I believe we need to continually challenge ourselves and our actions (or lack thereof).
Oops…typo. meant to say: “the WORLD as we see it today would be unrecognizable.”
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I think that you have hit on something that is uncomfortable for some Christians to talk about or acknowledge. Your thoughts are challenging, and I believe we need to continually challenge ourselves and our actions (or lack thereof).
no problem, I totally missed that you needed to approve it before it posted then when I came back I was all confused (I blame dossier paperwork for being so out of my mind lately…ha). My bad, not yours at all!
I've got nothing then. I don't understand how anyone can be anti-adoption.
Actually I did get your last comment and thought I'd approved it but I guess I missed it. Sorry for the extra trouble.
I wrote you back this long thing that never posted! booo, I hate when that happens! Basically the lady at the salon wasn't talking about private domestic she was actually talking about foster to adopt and also took a few jabs at international adoption. It was nasty situation, I said what I said calmly and I stand by what I said to her, there was really no need for her to insult me or her daughter in law or anyone who decides to adopt from where ever, how ever, for whatever reason. (clearly you would agree with that though 🙂 )
Best article I have read all day (and I have read way to many from the UBP)
Oops, apparently the link was bad… how about this one: http://www.patrickcorkum.com/index.php/2009/04/…
Leigh, many people have misconceptions about adoption. The woman was probably thinking about the domestic private situation. Read my post about why and the differences at http://www.patrickcorkum.com/index.php/2009/04/….
friend, the point that is trying to be made is that if the pro-life movement gets what they want, which is not a reversal of Roe v. Wade, but an end to abortions, even illegal ones, then there will be a huge crisis. Given that there are 1.2 million abortions each year, the waiting family list for private adoptions will be dried up very quickly as those entering the system will well outweigh those looking to adopt.
Amen Amen Amen!
I was getting my hair done a few months ago and my stylist was asking how things were going with our adoption, a lady that when in there started talking about how her son's wife wanted to adopt when they could easily have biological kids and she thought it was wrong. (that's exactly what my husband and I are doing). I took a deep breath and asked her if she was pro-life (we live in the south, most people say they are) and she said yes, I told her she simply needed to re-think if she is actually prolife or not because in my opinion she isn't. My stylist looked her dead in the eyes and told her I was right. I'm sure she was offended by I pray it made her actually think about what being prolife means!
I admit math cannot predict the hypothetical future which is why I won't quote any statistics about how many abortions are performed well after spontaneous miscarriage would probably have occurred. However, we'd be hard-pressed to say that the foster system wouldn't be impacted by a change in abortion statistics.
Thanks for your input (and thanks to your parents)!
This is an interesting discussion and a valid point; however, I think your math is off a bit.
You are assuming that every child that is aborted would live if laws were changed. When in fact, 10-25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage: http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycompl…
Even if you go with 10% as the low end, that brings your 60,000 figure down to 52,920.
You also have to consider that before abortion was made legal, women were still having them. The lowest figure I found for the number of women a year who died from an abortion was 5-10,000 and as many as 1.2 million abortions were performed a year prior to 1973. (This is much harder to find since there weren't clear records.) Therefore, it's possible that the result of making abortion illegal again would be a higher incidence of illegal abortions and not a higher strain on the foster system.
I think you make an excellent argument that those who are serious about being pro-life should make more of an effort to help children who are already in need of family support, but even in a hypothetical world, it's hard to know what the outcome would really be of overturning Roe V. Wade.
For the record, my pro-choice parents both adopted and fostered.
What a great discussion – I completely agree! We are neglecting the foster kids who are stuck in the system (found it on MckMamma Forum – http://theblogfrog.com/104191/forum/18943/so-yo…)
I think a lot about this too. There are so many ways to help decrease abortion, and it makes me think that standing outside a planned parenthood (a place that sees 100 clients for well women care/ birthcontrol consultations for every 1 client that gets an abortion) with a picket sign is SUCH A WASTE OF TIME! Individuals, churches, etc need to step up and take real action- adoption, supporting teen moms, etc- if they are really passionate about decreasing abortion. Thanks for your post!