Adoption is often promoted as an alternative to abortion by people who seem to think that pregnancy and childbirth are no big deal. Okay, maybe that was a loaded statement, but it certainly seems as though the people who promote adoption in this way don’t understand (or don’t care) that people seek abortions for reasons other than not wanting or being able to raise a child. Medical issues making pregnancy risky or difficult come to mind.
Now, Texas State Senator Eddie Lucio, who had the distinction of being the only Democrat in the Senate to vote for HB2, is pushing a new type of abortion restriction. Prior to obtaining an abortion, a person must complete a three-hour adoption course. I think the Feminist Justice League said it best in their open letter to Sen. Lucio:
Requiring this class will place undue burden on people who are geographically marginalized and lack internet access. More importantly, however, it gives the impression you think women are stupid. I certainly hope I’m correct in assuming that’s a false impression.
Whether Sen. Lucio actually thinks people are stupid or not, his proposal is part of a long line of assumptions that people don’t know how pregnancy works or what is inside their uteri. This is the attitude underlying all those mandatory ultrasound laws.
This seemed like a good opportunity to look at how many children are awaiting adoption in the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services’ (DFPS) care. This is the state agency that operates Child Protective Services, or CPS. I spent a couple of years representing parents, and occasionally kids, in CPS cases, so while I’m far from an expert on the subject, I have some understanding of how complicated a subject “adoption” can be.
According to the 2012 DFPS Data Book, page 43, 6,471 children were awaiting adoption as of August 31, 2012, with a median wait time of 10.6 months. For the 25.2% of those kids who are Anglo, the median wait time is only 8.8 months. It is longer for African American and Hispanic kids (12.6 and 10.6 months, respectively). For Native American children, who make up 0.1% of the total, the median wait time is 15.5 months. DFPS had a total of 31,302 children in foster care during fiscal year 2012 (page 50), and it removed 16,972 from their homes due to CPS investigations of alleged abuse or neglect (page 51).
Even without addressing questions of whether single people or people in same-sex relationships are allowed to adopt (laws vary widely), there are quite a few children just here in Texas who could use some support from the people who seem very concerned with embryos and fetuses. Let those people take on some of that burden, and let people who want to adopt learn not to be so picky. As Tumblr user mstashers quite eloquently put it:
If you cannot have a child of your own I am deeply sorry, but it is not my job nor the job of any other uterus-bearer to carry a child for you. If you want a child, there are children in the foster care/adoption system that need your love. If you don’t want to adopt one of those children, then you obviously do not want children as bad as you say you do.
