Is adoption the alternative to abortion? Unpacking the complexities of unplanned pregnancies

For National Adoption Day, let’s dive into the truths behind the conservatives’ ‘Adoption, not Abortion’ slogan.

By Annabel Rocha
November 17, 2023

Adoption, not abortion.

This idea has become a conservative slogan used by pro-life protesters, at crisis pregnancy centers, and by elected officials who push the notion that placing a child for adoption solves the problems faced by an unwanted pregnancy.

“Adoption, not abortion. With Roe overturned, we should find ways to make the adoption process in our country easier and safer,” tweeted former U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo, two days after Roe was overturned.

Continued: https://www.reckon.news/news/2023/11/is-adoption-the-alternative-to-abortion-unpacking-the-complexities-of-unplanned-pregnancies.html

17.11.2023

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adoption and abortion

Adoption by the Numbers report

Advancing New Standards for Reproductive Health

National Council for Adoption

States with restrictive abortion laws place more kids in foster care

By Jen Christensen, CNN
Nov 6, 2023

A new study finds that in states with certain restrictive abortion laws, even before the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the number of children whose parents couldn’t or wouldn’t care for them increased and their children end up in foster care.

The study, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, found that there was an 11% increase in children placed in foster care in states with certain abortion restrictions called TRAP laws, following the enactment of those TRAP laws, relative to states without such abortion restrictions.

Continued: https://www.komu.com/news/nationworld/states-with-restrictive-abortion-laws-place-more-kids-in-foster-care/article_816763e4-3c7c-5129-b3ac-7240ebfcc4d8.html

06.11.2023

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Research

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Dr. Savannah Atkins

Dr. Tracey Wilkinson

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Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers

‘Adoption, not abortion?’ How the Dobbs decision is affecting adoption in the U.S.

A year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, are more babies being placed in adoptive care? Birth mothers and adoption groups say trends are emerging, but it’s complicated.

July 3, 2023
By Mary Pflum

Madelynn Ballenger discovered she was pregnant for the second time at 20 years old. Already a single mother to a young son, she didn’t know whether she could take on a second child physically or financially. “It was really, really scary,” Ballenger said. “I didn’t have a job. I wasn’t in a good position to be expecting another child.”

It was September 2021, the month Texas’ ban on abortions after six weeks took effect, and Ballenger was five weeks pregnant. That left her little time to decide whether to keep the baby or terminate the pregnancy — if she could even find an available appointment to get an abortion.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/parenting/adoption-abortion-dobbs-decision-impact-rcna92104

USA – How Abortion Access Can Save Women From Violence

In America, pregnancy is a uniquely violent and sometimes deadly time. Abortion can be a lifeline.

Caroline Orr Bueno
December 15, 2021

There was a particularly revealing exchange at the Supreme Court last week, during arguments over Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, in a case with grave implications for abortion rights nationwide. Justice Amy Coney Barrett brought up safe haven laws—which allow babies to be surrendered for adoption shortly after birth without criminal penalties—and suggested that abortion is no longer necessary since women can just give up their babies for adoption. If abortion rights advocates are concerned about the burdens of forced motherhood, Barrett asked, “Why don’t the safe haven laws take care of that problem?”

Barrett’s comments reflect complete disregard for the ordeal of pregnancy itself and the impact of making people endure an unwanted pregnancy.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/164711/abortion-bans-violence-against-women

It’s not as simple as abortion v. adoption. Just ask Bri

December 14, 2021
AMY ISACKSON

Bri had wanted to be a mom for as long as she can recall. "I remember in high school, one of my aunts had a large family, so I used to say I wanted five kids like her," she said.

But seven years ago, Bri got pregnant by accident. She was 21 years old and the reality she confronted was very different from her teenage fantasy.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/14/1063784711/its-not-as-simple-as-abortion-v-adoption-just-ask-bri

14.12.2021

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Amy Coney Barrett

Corrine Rocca

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Sociologist says women are more likely to choose abortion over adoption

December 3, 2021
Heard on All Things Considered
Mary Louise Kelly

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Gretchen Sisson, a sociologist at UCSF, who has studied whether the option to put a child up for adoption alleviates the need for a woman to get an abortion.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In oral arguments this week before the Supreme Court over Mississippi's ban on abortion after 15 weeks, the court's newest justice, Amy Coney Barrett, brought up the issue of adoption as a viable alternative to abortion. Well, sociologist Gretchen Sisson has studied and written extensively about the choices people make when they don't wish to have a child, and she joins me now.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/03/1061333491/sociologist-says-women-are-more-likely-to-choose-abortion-over-adoption

Latin America’s New Anti-Abortion Battle Line: Fetus Adoption Over Abortion

Latin America's New Anti-Abortion Battle Line: Fetus Adoption Over Abortion
These innovative but controversial initiatives could serve as a model for abortion battles elsewhere.

By Deborah Bonello
Sept 29 2019

There is no word in Spanish for miscarriage. The term aborto espontaneo, which translates to spontaneous abortion, is the language used when pregnancy in Latin America ends suddenly. But as popular opinion in the region — home to some of the world’s most draconian legislation against abortion — slowly moves away from rigid opposition, anti-abortion actors are changing their language and tactics to fight back.

For decades, anti-abortion campaigns in Latin America have been built around principles outlined in the Bible, and values of morality and decency, says Fernanda Doz Costa, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Americas. Now, a new generation of activists opposed to abortion has adopted a rights-based approach arguing in favor of both the mother’s and the child’s rights, or that abortion can be avoided in many cases without the mother having to raise the child.

Continued: https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/latin-americas-new-anti-abortion-battle-line-fetus-adoption-over-abortion/96949

USA – Why So Many Women Choose Abortion Over Adoption

Why So Many Women Choose Abortion Over Adoption
Some American women see giving up their babies as more emotionally painful than terminating their pregnancies.

Olga Khazan
May 20, 2019

Along the highways of states where support for abortion is at its lowest, it’s not uncommon to see road signs that say choose adoption and similar messages. The signs capture a preferred anti-abortion retort to outcries over abortion restrictions, like the kind Georgia and Alabama just passed: Women with unwanted pregnancies should find adoptive families.

Adoption is a choice that certain women who don’t wish to keep their babies enter into happily. Some women find abortion to be anathema and rule it out among their options for an unwanted pregnancy. And for women considering abortion who ultimately settle on adoption, the process often benefits everyone involved.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/why-more-women-dont-choose-adoption/589759/

USA – Are Evangelical Adoption Agencies Stealing Children?

Are Evangelical Adoption Agencies Stealing Children?
American religious groups have a long history of adopting children from asylum seekers and from families in poorer nations. But are they saving kids’ lives—or trafficking them?

Christopher Stroop
Oct 1, 2018

After a long and arduous journey from Guatemala, asylum seeker Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia and her 7-year-old son, Darwin, crossed the U.S. border on May 21, 2018. For two days, the two were fed cold soup through a hose, before immigration officials came and pried the screaming boy from his mother’s arms. They wouldn’t tell her where they were taking him. Over 2,000 children were separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s performatively cruel “zero tolerance” immigration policy. Able to connect with a lawyer who helped her pro bono, Mejia-Mejia sued the federal government, which had violated her rights both under the U.S. Constitution and international law, and on June 22, the mother and son were reunited. Many separated families will not see a similar conclusion to their ordeal.

Continued: https://www.damemagazine.com/2018/10/01/are-evangelical-adoption-agencies-stealing-children/

U.S.: Adoption Is A Feminist Issue, But Not For The Reasons You Think

Adoption Is A Feminist Issue, But Not For The Reasons You Think

Liz Latty
Apr 19, 2017

Adoption is a complex billion-dollar business that often increases inequality.

In their efforts to cure what they see as a moral crisis infecting our nation, the anti-choice movement has historically thrown their power, money, and influence behind their two favorite antidotes to abortion: abstinence-only education and adoption. In any era when reproductive rights are being rolled back, as they are now, feminists need to get stronger and clearer about where we stand and what we’re fighting for. We all know, both from data and from common sense, that abstinence education is not only a failure but wildly detrimental to the health and safety of young people. But there doesn’t yet seem to be a broader understanding, even in the mainstream feminist and pro-choice movements, that promoting adoption has its problems too.

Continued at link: The Establishment: https://theestablishment.co/adoption-is-a-feminist-issue-but-not-for-the-reasons-you-think-93ba3824bcbb

19.04.2017