Written by Julie Stuckenschneider
Each year there are roughly 1.3 million abortions. Only 4% of the women with unwanted pregnancies place their children through adoption. It is estimated that there are somewhere between 1-2 million couples wanting to adopt each year. So looking at these numbers one would think there are plenty of couples wanting a baby so why aren’t these women choosing adoption over abortion.
Some of the most common reasons women choose abortion over adoption is cost, confidentiality and it’s less emotional. Yet, when taking a deeper look one will find these reasons to be misleading. For starters it is actually cheaper to place your child for adoption due to the costs of pregnancy and delivery being taken care of by the adoptive family. Whereas abortion costs are almost always the individual’s responsibility. Some insurances do cover parts of the cost but it isn’t a guarantee.
Secondly many women don’t want others to learn about their unplanned pregnancy and feel abortion is a quicker way to handle the matter. But with the help of adoption agency’s a woman can register as a confidential patient in the hospital to maintain her privacy. Finally many women feel having an abortion will be less emotional when in fact it can result in serious mental and emotional side effects afterward. Not only that but after after having an abortion many women end up having miscarriages when trying to conceive again. In a study of 13,000 women, among the ones who have had an abortion, 53% of them suffered a miscarriage.
When choosing adoption women can feel better about their choice knowing their child will have a better life. Also they have the option of an open adoption so they can remain in contact with the child. With this knowledge, adoption over abortion seems like the obvious choice. However getting this information to women with unplanned pregnancies is the real challenge.
Resource Links
Adoption Network
Deaconess Adoption
Reuters