Ann of Feministing writes about those “Choose Life” license-plate programs states have where the money theoretically goes to fund anti-choice programs.
Well, it turns out Florida is raking in money from the “Choose Life” plates faster than they can spend it. Why, you ask?
Women can’t receive help from the program if they plan to parent their children. It was established strictly for women who plan to give their babies up for adoption and need financial help during the pregnancy.
Wow. So despite the fact that the number of single mothers is on the rise, the state of Florida is won’t use the “Choose Life” cash to help them out. These license plates should really say “Choose Adoption.”
Can I just say right here that while I believe passionately in adoption for babies in genuine need, as when they are orphaned, abandoned, or when their parents are genuinely incapable of raising them. But… I gotta say I think the practice of encouraging otherwise healthy women to “give up” their babies to legal traffickers who sell facilitate their adoption for say, $10,000 the good feeling they get is pretty loathsome. Genuinely charitable people of faith would bend heaven and earth to make sure that the young, particularly vulnerable young or adolescent women had the support they need to raise their children in their own homes. That Florida and the adoption industry doesn’t even blush at its own brazenness disregard for the interest of either mother or child startles me, but doesn’t at all shock me.
Submitted by 1839 (not verified) on Thu, 2007-12-27 06:31.
it's fair enough to take a poke at a specific set-up that is clearly coercive or profit-driven. just as you've known people who were pressured to make an adoption plan i've known young women who were provided all the support you say should be offered and still wanted to place their child but hesitated to do so because they could not bear the negative comments people made about 'how could anyone give her baby away like that?'
i know the ignorance and willfully stupid attitudes my parents and i have encountered my entire life. it irritates me but i believe it is nothing compared to what a birth mother endures when people find out she placed a child for adoption.
thank you for clarifying some of the back story that motivated this post.
[No problem, Lime. Thanks. --fl]
Submitted by 1839 (not verified) on Wed, 2007-12-26 19:30.
Pretty disgusting situation - I agree Figleaf!
We've found in Australia that very, very few women give up children for adoption when they are provided with adequate support (and options). Each year you could number on the fingers of both hands the number of healthy babies offered for adoption in each state. However, there are a goodly number of children that are fostered for many reasons including neglect, family misfortune and families not being able to cope with handicaps or behaviour problems.
[Actually I'm pretty encouraged to hear that, Avalon. Also not very surprised. Thanks for the corroboration! --fl]
Submitted by 1839 (not verified) on Wed, 2007-12-26 21:50.
i agree that florida should not be using this money exclusively for adoption promotion. however, as an adoptee i have to say i find your thinly veiled jabs at adoption in general rather offensive. are there disreputable parties involved in adoption? undeniably so. and it infuriates me to see it. just like any other choice that could be made, whether it relates to abortion rights or pro life, there are folks out there only motivated by agenda or profit, not the welfare of people in a difficult situation. but to suggest that any healthy woman, whether teen or adult, who opts to make an adoption plan has been pressured for the sake of profit and fuzzy feelings only helps perpetuate one of many of the negative stereotypes about adoption that persist in this country.
[Sorry if I caused offense, Lime, and I don't mean at all at all to cast aspersions on your adoptive parents. I'm thinking in particular about some friends of mine who were ruthlessly badgered to "surrender" their children. Several of them have yet to re-contact their children and as far as I know all are bummed. *Especially* since with just a little help they'd have all managed, often in partnership (if not in marriage) with the fathers and their families. So anyway without taking anything away from you and your family the enormity of the Florida "pro-choice" gambit just frosts my shorts. Thanks. --fl]