By Mike McManus
The March for Life on January 22, the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, has always been about abortion. However, this year’s Choose Life theme was “Choose Adoption.”
Ryan Dobson, the adopted son of Dr. James Dobson, introduced his father by saying,
“My birth mother was 17 years old. She wasn’t married. She didn’t have a boyfriend. She didn’t know what to do.
Facing an unplanned pregnancy, her family and church connected her with a Pregnancy Resource Center, and people like you opened their arms to her, showed her the love of Christ and gave her an alternative.”
“I’m alive today, because of this movement.” After introducing his father, Dr. Dobson said that adopting Ryan was “one of the highlights of my life.”
Sadly, infant adoptions like that of Ryan – barely exist today.
In 1970 there were 89,000 adoptions. But the legalizing of abortion in 1973 changed that situation overnight.
By 1975 there were only 47,000. In 2007, the last year with data, a pitiful 18,000 adoptions.
That’s only 1% of the nation’s 1.7 million unwed births, or less than 1% of America’s 1.2 million abortions that year.
What can be done to turn this trend around?
The March for Life took an important initial step to emphasize adoption. Jeanne Monahan, who ran the event, declared, “Adoption is a heroic decision for pregnant mothers who find themselves in a difficult situation. We want to eliminate the stigma of adoption and encourage women to pursue this noble option.”
Read more at http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=18594#.UzW5ws4afRZ
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Missionaries to Malawi, my wife and I decided to adopt a baby in 2002. Adoption is a risk; adopted children can develop behavioral and other problems. Our child proved to be problem free, but my wife died from cancer when he was just three, leaving me to be a single dad. Now, he’s both a challenge and a blessing. He’s strong willed and my temperament is such that I find that difficult at times. His grades could be better. But he’s bright, handsome, athletic, funny, and very sociable around other kids and very popular. He’s on the school swim team and at age 11 has 46 swim medals from 3 different countries. He expresses love and appreciation; once he said, “If it wasn’t for you I’d be living in a village.” Without him my life would feel empty. I know that his adoption was God’s will for both our lives. I hope others will choose the adoption option, risky though it may be.