You have to wonder what went through the minds of thousands
of families waiting to adopt a baby as they listened to Illyse Hogue brag
about her decision to have an abortion in graduate school. It just
wasn’t a convenient time to be a mother, she explained, as the Democratic
National Convention cheered.
Nearly two
million infertile couples in the United States are actively trying to
adopt a child. Each of those hopeful couples would give their right arm for the
privilege of parenting children—like Hogue’s—whose lives are being ended
prematurely by a scalpel or a pill.
Since the dawn
of time there have been pregnant women who could not parent the child in their
wombs, and there have been infertile couples longing for a family. Never has it
been harder to bring those two parties together—birth mother and adoptive parents.
The basic problem is the
growing scarcity of babies due to culture of abortion.
Think about the
current adoptive couple’s plight. After years of failed infertility
interventions, a couple decides to adopt. Now they face a whole new set of
challenges, including as much as $45,000 to an adoption agency in a process
that could take two or three years. For every eligible baby, an invisible queue
of 36 couples waits for the chance to take that baby home.
Loving Potential
Parents Wait in Agony
Once the birth
mother chooses the adoptive couple, the real drama begins. Will the birth
mother decide at the last minute to parent the child herself? Does she want
these prospective parents to bond with the baby in the hospital? Is she
insisting the couple’s other children meet their potential new sibling (even
though she could still change her mind)? Does she have medical and personal
expenses she needs the adoptive parents to pay?
To any of those
questions, the adoptive couple will likely say yes. The alternative
is to re-enter the queue and wait some more.
Prospective
parents feel obliged to agree to a birth mother’s requests even though she may
decide at the eleventh hour to keep the baby. They risk losing whatever
expenses they contributed to the birth mother’s care then going home with no
baby and facing the task of mending the broken hearts of their children—and
themselves. The reason they take that gamble is simple to understand: There
are too few babies to adopt.
The sad reality
is that adoptive parents are beggars with no “rights” in the process. The power
lies totally in the birth mother’s hands. Just like the woman considering
abortion, each decision is determined by the woman’s right to choose.
Funding for
Death, Not for Life
In this election season the Democratic National Committee
is pushing the most radical
abortion agenda ever, shamelessly touting abortion as a
positive good. Although most insurances offer not a dime for fertility
treatments, the DNC platform insists abortion should be free to the mother—the
bill footed by non-consenting taxpayers.
It’s
worth remembering that behind the mirage of no-consequences abortion stand
thousands and thousands of families with aching, empty arms. Many couples and
potential siblings go to sleep at night praying for one—just one—of those
babies to take home and love.
