Adoption and Abortion

I'm a firm believer in the positives of adoption. Baby girls are being drowned in China's rivers. Children with special needs are being abandoned on the streets of Guatemala. An American couple is willing to adopt one of these children. I think the child is likely to be better off with the American couple than in an orphanage or institution in their home country. And yes, I mean better off monetarily and materially, but also better off developmentally, psychologically, emotionally. It has nothing to do with the race or nationality of the parents, simply that the child *has* parents,

But I'm also a firm believer in a woman's right to have an abortion. I suppose that seems like a paradox to some people. Let me explain.

Adoption is not a catch-all solution. I think it is one way to deal with the pandemics of poverty, young mothers, strict cultural and societal norms, rape and poor decision making that lead to children being relinquished. But adoption is not perfect, as numerous cases over the years have shown. Screening of adoptive parents is not perfect. There is child trafficking. Some adoptees face extra obstacles in the form of prejudice, mental illness, or attachment disorders.

To add to this, children who are relinquished are often not immediately adopted, and as they get older, their chances of being adopted decrease. Adoptive parents want infants, which is understandable. But what about the children who languish for years in foster care, eventually aging out at 18 with no family and no support system?

The fact of the matter is, adoption is a much more complex and involved process than simply handing a child over to a new family. People who advocate for adoption as the alternative to abortion need to understand that relinquishing a child for adoption does not guarantee that the child will find another family.

I believe that adoption is one avenue for finding homes and families for children. But I also *know* from work and from personal experience that it's an imperfect system. To assume that adoption is an easy, no-strings-attached alternative to abortion is, quite frankly, ignorant.