Adoption: A Choice We Can All LIVE With
The Facts:
Approximately 2,000,000 couples in America are currently ready and waiting to adopt.
Only about 50,000 babies are placed for adoption each year.
Only 2% - 3% of the more than 1,000,000 teenagers who will become pregnant this year will place their child for adoption. Over 40% will choose abortion.
Adoption is, without a doubt, the most mature and loving and unselfish decision that a young single woman can make for her child. Though it can certainly be difficult at first, through support and counseling, a woman can know for certain that she has done three positive things:
1. Provided a loving and stable 2-parent home for her child.
2. Offered a couple the fulfillment of their dreams of raising a child.
3. Greatly improved her own chances of a positive future, with the greater possibility of an education, economic stability, and marriage and children later in life.
Did you know that the #1 indicator of poverty in America is not race or where one lives, but it is single-parent households! Though she may have high hopes, a single teenage mother will find it very difficult to provide the financial or emotional stability that a child so desperately needs. Furthermore, if the father is not involved, nothing can replace the nurturing he can provide. (For more information on the importance of fathers, visit www.fatherhood.org).
When single-parenting and marriage have been ruled out, a young woman is left with 2 options: adoption or abortion. Let’s compare them:
Adoption vs. Abortion
Similarities:
- Each allows you to pursue your own goals and plans.
- Each relieves you of the responsibility of having to parent prematurely
- Each relieves you of the financial burdens of parenting
- Each eases the pressure of being forced into a hasty marriage
Differences:
- Adoption: Your pregnancy ends with giving life
- Abortion: Your pregnancy ends abruptly with death
- Adoption: You can feel good about your decision
- Abortion: You may feel extreme guilt and shame
- Adoption: You will have the memory of giving birth
- Abortion: You will have the memory of taking a life
- Adoption: If you desire, you can have continued contact and news from your child
- Abortion: You will never know who your child might have been
It’s easy to see why Adoption is the choice that we can all live with!!
At LMO, we do not facilitate adoptions, but we offer referrals to a non-profit Christian organization called Hope for Children. With the help of our staff, as well as the highly trained birth parent counselors at HFC, the difficult decision to make an adoption plan for your child can be realized through love and compassion.
For more information on adoption, visit the Hope for Children web site at www.hopeforchildren.org.
