“Every person — the born and unborn, the poor, the downcast, the disabled, the infirm, and the elderly — has inherent value. Although each journey is different, no life is without worth or is inconsequential; the rights of all people must be defended.” -Donald Trump
In your speech for the National Sanctity of Human Life Day and throughout your presidency, you have brought some much-needed awareness to a very important issue in our country. EVERY life has value. We celebrate that we are now seeing a decline in abortion rates, which is a huge step in the right direction. But conservatives are still fighting against the seeming “giants” of the left and the leftist media that declare, “the rights of a mother far outweigh the rights of the life inside her.”
It is a dark day in our country when a governor can say that he would be happy to carry out an abortion after the birth of a baby. The left would like us to believe that 50 million babies didn’t have the right to live, as we have recently reached that number of reported abortions since Roe v. Wade.
All these things stir a wealth of emotions in my gut. But my devastation since New York legalized partial-birth abortion last year has come from a realization. While some would call these “unwanted pregnancies,” many others would gladly call each an adopted son or daughter. Around one million abortions happen every year, but it’s estimated that two million couples are currently waiting to adopt. There are couples waiting to bring home a baby, and that number doubles the amount of aborted babies each year. There is a solution for pregnant women that doesn’t include ending life. Adoption is the answer! No baby is unwanted.
A Better Option
Why haven’t lawmakers seen adoption as an important, viable option? Did you know that 2% of our population has adopted? That’s not a huge number, but would it surprise you to hear that according to a recent poll, nearly one third of the population says they have considered adoption? One third! That’s an interesting number because Planned Parenthood said they estimate that one third of American women will get an abortion in their lifetime. Why will one third of women go through with an abortion while one third of the population will only consider adoption?
Side-by-side Statistics
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why adoption only gets considered, and why abortion on-demand is so prevalent.
- An abortion costs anywhere from $350-$1,000 according to Planned Parenthood. American Adoptions estimates the average domestic adoption costs upwards of $40,000.
- To have an abortion, a woman will make an appointment. She will meet with a counselor once. In most states, she will be able to have her baby asphyxiated or chemically killed a week or two later. The average home study for an adoption takes a year to complete. After an extensive background check, meeting requirements, interviews, and an incredible amount of paperwork, the average wait time for a successful match is around a year, but some take several years. That’s potentially 2 to 3 years waiting to bring a baby home.
- While Planned Parenthood admits that nearly 95% of women who have an abortion will regret it, I don’t suppose a single family regrets their decision to adopt.
If there were more requirements for abortion, more cost, and more accountability, I truly believe less women would choose abortion.
My point, Mr. President, is that there is a gross imbalance in our country. How do we correct this problem? While unfortunately we may never see abortion fully irradiated in our country, we certainly need to re-balance the scales.
There Must Be Regulation
Abortion must be regulated. Currently, we are seeing huge movements towards no standardization at all. Wait times need to be increased dramatically. Why is it that one visit and a week can be enough thought and time to decide to end life? There is nothing scientifically, emotionally, or spiritually that supports this time frame. Many states are increasing the wait times, and this needs to be furthered across the country.
We must also designate a time during a pregnancy when the baby is considered life. I believe life happens at conception. While others may disagree, I do believe at some point, that baby needs to be considered a human life. If we don’t place some kind of standard of “life” on the table, that line will always be moveable. It is no wonder America hasn’t come to partial-birth abortions sooner because there is no standard in place. At some point, that baby needs to be medically declared “alive” by even the most liberally-minded of us all. As the congressman said, he would murder a baby after it has already breathed its first breath. What’s stopping them from killing a five year old? At what point does a baby become a baby? At that point, it is a human being and has the right to life.
An Answer to the Cries
Here’s an idea: what if the government funded adoptions instead of abortions? It is estimated that Planned Parenthood receives over a third of its funding from the government ($530 million).
What if adoption agencies got more funding so that they could lower the cost of adopting. If you don’t think $40,000 will scare you away from an adoption, one third of Americans would disagree with you.
There is an adoption tax credit. According to the IRS in 2020, the tax credit is $13,810 of qualified expenses. Adoption costs $40,000, so $13,810 is helpful, but certainly not enough to make an adoption financially reasonable to the average household. In addition, that is only helpful after adoption, but what about before adoption. If families had more opportunity to adopt, and we brought more awareness to adoption on a national level, there would be a better answer for the cries of all those aborted babies.
Our Answer
In May of 2019, my husband and I had the opportunity to meet a woman who was carrying her fourth pregnancy that she knew was a child she could not raise on her own, just like her previous three pregnancies. She had the option to abort the baby earlier in her pregnancy, but she knew terminating a life was not something she could do. So she made an adoption plan with us.
My husband is the children’s pastor at our church, and I teach in our small Christian school. The adoption was going to cost more than $30k. We could never hope to have that kind of money free within even a year’s time. So I began applying for every single adoption grant I could find an application for. We raised money with GoFundMe and through a t-shirt fundraiser. Thankfully, we were able to raise the money. On July 31, 2019, Avery Marie was born, and we took her home two days later. On February 24, 2020, we were able to legally adopt her.
While we are people of faith, and we believe that we were called to adopt this beautiful little girl, we are also not financially irresponsible enough to think we could have adopted her without raising the money necessary before she was born. We were incredibly fortunate to raise that money because, according to statistics, there are many who cannot. Now, we look at our future, and we would love nothing more than to adopt several more times. We want to stand in the gap of these situations and be able to provide a loving home for children who need it. However, we don’t know where the money will come from for the next adoption, let alone two or three more times. We spent our life’s savings. We will save every penny we can, work extra “side hustles” where we can, fundraise, and spend our life’s savings again because we know we are called to this. But why is it so difficult to adopt when adoption is one of the greatest solutions to abortion in our country.
My hope, Mr. President, is that we can tip the scales back and allow one third of the Americans who want to stand in the gap and make a difference to be able to help the one third of women who know they cannot raise the child that is growing inside of them.
The Cause
When David was pitted against Goliath, and the people thought he was crazy to face such a huge foe, he said, “Is there not a cause?” Mr. President, we may still fight Goliaths in America, but the Davids of this country can win. If you don’t believe it, think about how small-town America got to show the powerhouse liberal cities what we wanted our country to look like in the 2016 election, and hopefully again in 2020.
There is a cause, Mr. President. “All children —born and unborn—are made in the holy image of God.” THAT is our cause.
Sincerely,
Michelle Cox
