You slam your car door shut and make the daunting walk down the sidewalk toward the abortion clinic where you have an appointment. Lined along either side of you are protesters staring you down as they flaunt signs and hurl words at you. Their signs are splattered with slogans: “Defend Life,” “Pray to End Abortion,” “The Future is Anti-Abortion.” At the end of the sidewalk, near the building entrance, a couple stands together. Holding a sign, small smiles play at the edge of their lips as they wait for you to read it:
“Don’t abort! We’ll adopt!”
There are an estimated 407,000 children in the foster care system, according to 2020 numbers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. The national system is so overwhelmed that thousands of children never get adopted, eventually “graduating” out without a family to call their own. Children travel from one home to the next in groups, hoping to eventually be picked by a family and grow up in a place where they are loved, treasured, and taken care of.
“Don’t abort! We’ll adopt!”
This argument is weak, especially when used to guilt someone out of abortion. A couple looking for a child doesn’t have the right to be angry at someone who has chosen to not carry a child. The focus shouldn’t be on the children who will not have a place to go in the future; it should be on the children who do not have a family to go home to now. Adoption is not a replacement for abortion.
“Don’t abort! We’ll adopt!”
Adoption isn’t an easy thing to do. It’s the act of welcoming a person into a family and promising them that they will be part of that family as if they always were. It’s not babysitting; it’s parenting a child who may have not known familial love before. It will be challenging. It will make one question what exactly possessed them to have a child, just as any other parenting situation would. Adoption is a lifelong commitment.
“Don’t abort! We’ll adopt!”
It’s immoral to give an unborn fetus a family when there are hundreds of thousands of children who are patiently waiting for someone to find them. Once each child in the foster care system has a home, society can worry about the unborn fetuses who are not in the world yet.
Adopt the ones who are already alive. Find the ones who need a family. Love the ones who need a home.
Gabi Connor is an 18-year-old English freshman from LaPlace.
