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Oy. The adoption connection. Just oy.
It *is* something I heard voiced when I was growing up with lots of other adoptive families around, unfortunately. Because my parents have seven kids adopted from three other countries, plus 3 bio-kids, I ended up, as a teen, being asked to talk about my experiences and answer questions from prospective adoptive parents. This happened to be right when eastern Europe opened up to international adoption, so the adoption agency was getting a whole different crowd than the people who had been coming with the idea that they just wanted a child, *not* necessarily a child who looked just like them.
Years ago I found a study that showed no real correlation between abortion being legal and the number of babies placed for adoption. What has had a huge impact on adoption was that it is more acceptable in the United States to be a single mother, even a teen mother. I know there are tons of Christians who believe otherwise, but the empirical evidence doesn't back them up. Most women, when carrying an unplanned pregnancy to term, choose to parent.
I know the Right to Lifers get in on this whole "choose life" thing and think adoption is the alternate to abortion, but it's not for most people. It's the alternate to parenting. There are exceptions here and there. I hate it when the Right carries adoption as it's flag. I am an adoptive mother and I am proudly, fully pro-choice. Women should not bear children against their choice.
One of my church members has a pregnant granddaughter, a high school senior whose baby is due this summer. She tells me that her granddaughter will be keeping the baby "because her mother doesn't believe in abortion or adoption." First, don't get me started on the phrase "believe in" used in this context. That's a discussion for another day. Second, I think this illustrates the point being made above. The drop in available white infants has a lot more to do with the acceptability of single motherhood than with the right to choose (for the time being and in most places, that is to say)). This young woman isn't being compelled to marry the boyfriend or being sent away to have the baby in secrecy. I don't know how well this will work out for all of them. I'm not sure how in anyone's mind this is the best choice for the young woman or for her baby, especially given that her mother seems to be making the choices for her, underscoring the fact that at 17 she is still a child herself.
I should stress that my mom is remembering a time that allowed limited access to birth control, not just to abortion.
I'm doubtful that the abortion thing would really ever lead to a ban on birth control. The percentage of people, even right-winged voters, who believe birth control is bad is very, very small. In my experience, it's been limited to Catholics, and not even a very large percentage of those. Most right-wingers feel that prevention is acceptable, and quite preferable to unwanted pregnancies.
I think that the abortion restrictions that are likely coming may make certain forms of birthcontrol more difficult to obtain, but probably won't affect broad access to contraceptives (but then, I'm an English professor, not a policy analyist!)
You can see some stats on voluntary relinquishment of US infants here:
http://naic.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/s_place.cfm
There definitely is a trend downwards (among white women) but the research summarized there suggests that the trend may be accounted for more by better family supports and cultural shifts.
Eee, Phantom, what a scary conspiracy theory. It seems too much to think that it would lead to banning birth control; then again, plenty of things surprise me these days, and none of them in positive ways.
ooh.
Yeah, I've been worried about the hot market for healthy white babies becoming a catalyst for banning abortion. And here we are, starting with what I'm guessing is one of the whitest states in the nation. . . I'm wondering what the fertility rates are in SD with all the farming chemicals they've been applying for a couple of generations.
When we looked at adoption agencies in our state, we realized that we didn't qualify for many of them because our denomination was "too liberal". The PCUSA is considered apostate by the PCA's and their ilk.
Great.
Scary thought!
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