First, contrary to conservative expectations, the vast majority of people who seek abortions do not consider adoption to be a good and meaningful option. In recent years, between 850,000 and 1 million abortions are performed annually (that number has actually increased). Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization), the number of infant adoptions in Japan is only about 20,000. Abortion is a common experience. Adoption abandonment is rare. The latter cannot substantially replace the former. In one survey of 5,000 abortion patients, 99% said they were not interested in putting their child up for adoption instead of having an abortion. Only 1% said they were “somewhat” interested.
Even among people like Evelyn who cannot access abortion, there is little interest in adoption. An analysis of the Turnaway Study, a longitudinal study that examined what happened when participants were denied access to abortion, found that 91% of women chose to raise the child they gave birth to. got it. In addition to increasing adoptions, abortion bans increase the number of people raising children in settings they would not otherwise choose. Additionally, study participants who gave up their children were most likely to report regretting not having an abortion.
Most mothers who give up their infants do not seek abortions. want To be parents to children. Adoption is usually a lifeline only when poverty or crisis make raising a child feel impossible. These abandonments are evidence of our nation’s failure to provide a meaningful social safety net for vulnerable families.
Readers should not take Evelyn’s story as a genuine alternative to abortion. To do so would be to misunderstand how people are forced to make difficult decisions in a world without reproductive freedom.
Gretchen Sisson, San Francisco
She is the author of Abandonment: The Politics of Adoption and the Privileges of American Motherhood.
The Post’s April 7 story about a Texas adoption necessitated by inadequate abortion care had its main character twice.
Only in the 20th paragraph do we learn that Evelyn, who gave up her mother, is herself an adopted child. It is tragically common for adult adoptees whose ability to form relationships is compromised by giving up their children to choose not to have or leave children of their own. And Evelyn, like many of his adopted children, feels responsible for her adoptive parents’ feelings about her pregnancy. In this case, Texas’ attacks on women’s reproductive health care contributed to the birth of a child Evelyn neither intended nor wanted to have.
Much later in the story, we learn that the woman who adopts Evelyn’s daughter pays $50,000 for the adoption. The cost of domestic adoptions varies depending on the state where the adoption takes place and whether the adoptive parents are working through an agency, but these numbers are consistent with costs across the United States. And just as costs vary from state to state and situation to situation, so do regulations. No federal agency tracks data on private adoptions, and states do not collect data in a similar manner, making it difficult to gather reliable information about these transitions.
More than half of birth mothers do not have a bachelor’s degree. 16% reported having a disability. 11% have put up more than one child for adoption. And even the National Council on Adoption reports that 22 percent of birth mothers are dissatisfied with the adoption process, and the percentage of birth mothers who feel criticized for their decisions is actually higher than in 1970. It is acknowledged that the number has increased since the 1990s.
America has modernized the way it deals with the health and welfare of its citizens over time. all Minimize the need for abandonment and adoption and protect women’s rights.
nicole burton, Riverdale Park, Maryland
He is the author of Swimming Up the Sun: A Memoir of Adoption.
A front-page article in the Post about Carolyn, an unmarried woman, adopting the newborn daughter of another unmarried woman, Evelyn, barely mentions the baby’s father. The article mentioned Evelyn’s mother, Tamera, but did not mention Evelyn’s biological father.
Who are Tamera and Evelyn’s fathers? Were they consulted about the abortion decision? Were they asked to provide both financial and parental support for their children?
At least we learn that Evelyn was adopted by an old-fashioned couple 25 years before the events of this story. Her adoptive father is said to be a “veteran.”
The Post’s Father’s Day issue on June 16th proposes to prominently feature men such as Evelyn’s adoptive father, stepfathers who marry women who already have children, and single fathers. After her mother passed away, she raised four children single-handedly by men like my father. I was hospitalized for life when I was 7 years old.
John A. MooreGwynne Oak, Maryland
Trump’s cynical political stance on abortion
Regarding the April 9 front page article, “Trump says abortion should be a state issue”:
Donald Trump decided to cut babies in half in a “Wisdom of Solomon” fashion. Red states would maintain repressive laws that forced women to give birth. But these women can flee to blue states for reproductive freedom.
Does Mr. Trump realize that he is taking the position of the Democratic Party, that of Stephen A. Douglas, the Democrat who opposed Abraham Lincoln just before the Civil War?Trump must know that too. that It went well.
We are one nation, Mr. Trump. Indivisible.
William Hersel, Weirtaug, Kone.
Depending on the audience, Trump wants to take credit for reproductive rights protected in progressive states and oppressive restrictions in red states.
Remind him of ancient wisdom. “What do you get when you add a teaspoon of fine wine to a gallon of sewage?” Sewage.
What do you get when you add a teaspoon of sewage to a gallon of fine wine? Sewage.
Janine D. HarrisAlexandria
I think former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it best recently when she said she “doesn’t believe anything” about Trump’s alleged “core beliefs” on abortion.
Abortion is a very private matter and involves a delicate and painful choice that the pregnant woman, and herself alone, must make. No one else should be involved in the process. But here the church and government are dictating conditions to civilians. And to be honest, I think most elected officials know that, but they’re involved in things that have nothing to do with the business of running the country for political self-interest. .
In my opinion, Mr. Trump, and for that matter the entire Republican establishment, should abandon the religious right. As election after election has made clear, that regressive policy is not our future. It’s a sinking ship, and if you try to hold on to it for any reason, you’re sure to sink.
Arthur Saginian, Santa Clarita, California
And the horror of Arizona’s abortion ruling
Regarding the Post’s April 10 front page article, “Abortion will be a crime in Arizona”:
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? The pregnant woman or the fetus? And as abortion laws are reviewed nationally and in our states, which comes first?
A “pro-life” position on abortion prioritizes the potential life of a fetus or fetus over the actual life of the pregnant person, whether a woman or a girl. What, other than religious doctrine, justifies this choice? Why are the opinions of other religions not considered? And why not reverse these priorities and prioritize pre-existing sentient humans?
The Arizona Supreme Court makes clear how unjust these priorities are by upholding a law with no exceptions for rape or incest. If abortion is murder, then the fetus or fetus must be saved. However, if we save these innocent “lives” and outlaw abortions caused by rape or incest, we will reduce all fertile people to the status of livestock. Why don’t women have the right to bodily autonomy that men take for granted? This logic: the right to life of another person takes precedence over the right to bodily autonomy of a living person. On the “should” logic, could states pass laws forcing men to donate their kidneys if it fits and someone else’s life will be saved?
Let’s all consider carefully how disjointed the “pro-life” position is and vote for those who unequivocally support abortion rights, reproductive justice, and bodily autonomy for all.
Sharon Stout, silver spring
