CoEternity

That babies deserve life is beyond debate; that they should be forced to enter the world under the care of someone who isn’t prepared for them––or forced into a lucrative baby adoption economy––is another question. Why, to some, is it so clear that children are worthy of life, yet unclear that they deserve to grow up in a place where plans and actions have made a home for them, before they arrive?

We have foster homes already overflowing with children of such circumstances. There are unfortunate kids who find themselves on the margins of attractiveness to potential parents. Thanks to a publicly ignored, under-funded piece of state social work, they are shuffled about in a nearly unmanageable foster care system that pays temporary parents to care for children––by the head.

The pro-life movement should dedicate half its resources to our existing, distressed, life-deserving children to whom we already owe the care of our hearts. The other half should go to effective education about using birth control.

The pro-life movement wants to pretend that human behavior will finally change, that unwanted pregnancies can be ended before conception if women will just behave differently, the way they did back in the good days of our ancestors. Of course, there was never such a time, when women were not made pregnant out of wedlock or kept pregnant in a large family at times when there was scarce room for another mouth to feed. Shotgun weddings were so common as to be routine in the generations leading up to the advent of the pill; propagation of those huge farm and city families came to a screeching halt almost at the very moment when a woman finally had a choice.

Early termination of an unplanned pregnancy saves multiple lives, including that of the tiny victim of forced birth. The glorious gift given to us nearly two generations ago––when doctors literally put effective birth control into a woman’s hand––was the power and beauty of preparing the way for the wanted child.