New Post later today, May 21...President’s Obama’s call for “making adoption more available” in order to reduce abortions is the most clueless statement by a president since George Bush asserted that the trouble with the French was that they had no word for “entrepreneur.”
President Obama, adoption is plenty available. Check out the websites under adoption. The adoption industry spends millions on slick advertising to induce young women to part with their newborn babies. Financial support for women during their pregnancies? No problem. Need money for college? Just give up your firstborn child to strangers and win a scholarship. Want an all expenses paid vacation to Los Angeles including airfare, medical expenses, and sightseeing tours? Just give your baby to Adoptions First who will pass it along to Hollywood celebs who pay a big fee for your little darling.
The line of people wanting to adopt stretches all the way to China and a queue is forming in Africa. Last year, 17,438 children were imported to meet the needs of the infertile and the altruistic.
A pregnant woman would have to be living in a cave to fail to realize that she has her pick of people willing to take her baby off her hands. The National Council for Adoption runs several programs to increase adoption awareness including the "iChooseAdoption" campaign and the adoption awareness program funded by US taxpayers which trains doctors and others who come in contact with pregnant women how to sell them on the adoption option.(The NCFA also fights legislation to allow adoptes access their original birth certificates but that’s another story.)
Even one of the nemeses of the anti-abortion crowd, Planned Parenthood, promotes adoption.
Rest assured President Obama: Women don’t abort their babies because they can’t find anybody willing to take the little bastard. In most cases, women abort because they lack the resources to care for a child. If you’re serious about reducing abortions, how about offering natural families the same $12,150 tax credit the government gives adopters?
"Rest assured President Obama: Women don’t abort their babies because they can’t find anybody willing to take the bastard. In most cases, women abort because they lack the resources to care for a child. If you’re serious about reducing abortions, how about offering natural families the same $12,150 tax credit the government gives adopters?"
ReplyDeleteAMEN.
Fantastic quote and very well said! Thank you! Totally agree!
DeleteYou know, after hearing about President Obama's call for more adoptions, I felt compelled to send my very own email to him via the comment form on the White House web page.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if enough people do this our voices just may be heard, loud and clear.
All one can do is hope...
Thanks Vanessa, After I read your excellent suggestion, I emailed my piece to Pres. Obama (toned down a bit).
ReplyDeleteYou are quite welcome, Jane and thank you for sending your piece!
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about doing that ever since he got elected and thought this was as good a time as any, since he did call for "more adoptions".
We know what the call for "more adoptions" means. It means more needless separations of mothers and their children. It means more heartache and grief for the mother who misses out on her child's entire life. It means more adoptive parents who make promises to mothers they never intend to keep. It means a child grows up without his mother and heritage, all so the adoption agencies of this country can rake in billions from their paying customers, at the expense of a mother and the child she has lost forever. That's what the call for "more adoptions" means.
I didn't mean go go off on a tangent here... but quite frankly, I am just sick of the adoption industry and people, including our elected officials thinking it is okay for things to continue the way they are. It is not okay. We are living proof of that.
Vanessa,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion, I sent my own email out as well. I just hope this one generates a better response than the last one I sent out. During one of the debates, where again the "encourage more adoptions" came up in an answer to abortion, I sent an email out to both candidates. What I received from the one that went to Obama's team was being added to his email list. That was all.
I know I shouldn't let it, but statements like this from our elected officials just depress me and feel like a kick in the gut for everything we are speaking up for. How do we ever fight past the billions that go into promoting adoption, the many powerful adoptive parents who rule the roost in our government to somehow make them see the truth.
I just so wish somebody in our government would hear us and be willing to fight the majority to make changes!
"Making adoption more available”
ReplyDeleteObama said before the election that we should try to help single mothers if they wanted to to keep the baby. He was quite unequivocal about it.
I don't think that, at least on a personal level, he'd veer from that belief. But it's a thin line in politics, and one that's his responsibility to tread.
In the Notre Dame address he also said, " . . . let's work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies" (Who'd argue with that?), followed by the offending phrase and then, " . . . and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term. " neither of which contradict his earlier statement.
Adoption simply isn't central to this argument.
I don't know if he offered it up as a straw man (or woman) or what.
Jane, this faux pas by our Prez is all over the adoption blogs-- as well it should be. I posted about it as well and provided a link to yours, which says it best. Just goes to show how politicians (our supposed leaders) try to please all of the people all of the time instead of making informed decisions. And while bending to "groups," ignore ours. We aren't as small and disposable as they think. I too will email Obama... regardless of how much good it does.
ReplyDeleteThank you for standing up for us.
Don't natural families already get a tax credit for children born to them, if they earn enough income to pay taxes? I thought that was always the case, hence the push to get the kid born before Jan. 1. Certainly there needs to be more support for poor moms raising their babies, but from what I have seen of Obama's policies I think he favors that.
ReplyDeleteThis may be our big issue, but compared to what President Obama has to deal with, it is relatively unimportant. I am much more concerned about health care, the economy, the wars, the environment etc. Yes, adoption is important to us, but it is way down the list of what needs fixing in our country.
I don't see taking one phrase out of speech that was dealing with abortion mainly as a reason to panic or accuse Obama of actually promoting more adoptions.
One issue voters, like fanatical pro-lifers, are tiresome and short-sighted, no matter how dear to our hearts the one issue is. Maybe we should be more realistic and look at the bigger picture.
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ReplyDeleteMary Anne asked about tax credits for natural families. All parents (adoptive and natural) may claim a personal exemption of $3,500 for each child which reduces their taxable income. Additionally, all parents are eligible for a tax credit of up to $1000 per child depending on their income. The credit may be reduced if the parent has claimed an adoption tax credit for that year.
ReplyDeleteThe adoption tax credit allows adoptive parents a credit equal to the cost of adoption (adoption agency fees, attorney fees, travel expenses, and the like) up to $12,150.
Maryanne~
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for everyone here, but I want to assure you that I am more than just a one issue voter and all of the things you mentioned are important to me as well.
I am certainly not panicking about ONE phrase, but do want to make my voice heard in regards to adoption and how it has affected me and my life and as a citizen of this country I am exercising my right to do that. I personally think the adoption industry has gotten away with destroying lives for way too long.
Thanks Jane, I was not clear on that. It certainly would help if all mothers got the extra money. Hopefully if we ever get universal health care at least the medical expenses will be covered for all.
ReplyDeleteI should add in the interest of accuracy that low income parents also receive an earned income tax credit.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of a tax credit is to reduce the disparity between the haves and the have nots or to induce people to do something in the public interest they would not otherwise do. The adoption tax credit for the most part induces the break up of families which is counter to the public interest. The money ends up in the pockets of adoption agencies and attorneys who spend considerable sums enticing women who could care for their children to surrender them.
While the emails are good to send to Pres. Obama, he reads ten letters a night, selected for him by...someone else, out of the hundreds he receives daily. I doubt that he ever got my letter (read it by clicking on my name above)laying out all the reasons that adopted people should have an absolute right to their birth certificates, it was probably rejected as having too much information, but I'm thinking that if we sent individual letters with our personal stories about why the records should be open-to the White House one of those letters might get to him. It's a start.
ReplyDeleteHowever, since he isn't acting as quickly as I think he should be on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays in the military and three highly educated and trained soldiers who have already served terms in Iraq and Afghanistan are being pushed out...I don't have a clue what he would do or how fast he would do it. And there are a lot of other things that are, um, taking up his time right now.
The Address:
President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
(202) 456-1414
Let's do one thing this week to move our agenda forward.
Hi Lorraine!
ReplyDeleteA bunch of adoptees are emailing him too. Here's the email link:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
One of our letters/emails has got to get through!!!!
Screenwriters are the ones to blame for the misinformation to the public on "privacy for birthmothers". They perpetuate the lie that the industry has spoon fed them.
ReplyDeleteThe Screenwriters have a union and in that union that have a committee on women's issues. This committee is designed to help advance the image of women in television. Maybe we should email them and tell them to stop portraying first mothers are scared women who were promised anonymity when relinquishing their children to adoption.
Here's the link:
http://www.wga.org/ContactUs/ContactUs.asp?Email=diversity
This was passed on. I found it interesting:
ReplyDelete'The Adoption Credit: An Ethical Dilemma'
http://www.njarch.org/images/
Adoption%20Tax%20Credit%201-08.pdf
It makes it clear that the money is not going, by and large, where it was intended to go or to help those it is supposed to help, - but rather, as Jane has said, to swell the industry.
The final paragraph quotes from an editorial in the Columbia Dispatch, ' “The tax credit was meant to be a tool to encourage and enable public adoptions, not an entitlement to anyone who adopts.” If we are to move ahead with the best interests of waiting children in mind, the adoption tax credit conversation needs to start now.'
That was written in 2007, and the tax credit is due to come up for renewal or extension next year.
As the article says, it must not be renewed without first making sure that the financial relief is going to go where it's most needed and deserved.
In its present state the adoption tax credit system looks like a cross between a boondoggle and a bandwagon.
I don't know much about it but I thought the credit was supposed to encourage adoption out of foster care, especially for older kids whose parents no longer have rights. Yes, most definitely, it should not be an entitlement.
ReplyDeleteLorraine, good on you putting in a good work for the abolition of DADT. The reason he's not going so fast is because, I believe, of the overwhelming resistance of some Republicans and members of the military, and he intends to use 2009 to build support before a congressional vote. Congress is moving in that direction anyway. It is very difficult to see careers destroyed in the name of such idiocy. But I doubt he'll back down.
Although originally intended as an incentive for people to adopt children from foster care, the adoption tax credit is now available to anyone who adopts. This includes people who adopt children from overseas which clearly has no public purpose.
ReplyDeleteAdoption agencies use the tax credit in their advertising to recruit prospective adoptive parents. The tax credit goes up every year and agencies increase their fees accordingly.
People who adopt children from foster care are also eligible for various incentives including monthly payments and medical care.
While I think you make some valid and encouraging points, I can not ignore your support of a woman (or girl) without the resources needed for raising a child to keep their baby. I am an adult adoptee and agree that a lot of difficult, confusing, and sometimes even painful feelings can come along with everyone involved in an adoption (biological families, adoptive families, and adopted persons). However, I am so thankful that I was adopted and given opportunities my birth mother NEVER could have given me. I have done research on my biological background and found that even with some financial help from the government, my birthmother (who was 15 when she became pregnant with me) never could have supported me in the way I should have been supported.
ReplyDeleteYou propose that if pregnant women were given some type of financial compensation or tax cut in hopes they will keep their children, it would not only lower abortion rates, but allow mothers to support and keep the child. This situation would create a whole mess of problems. Successfully raising a child is not all about being able to financially provide for them. Psychological problems galore are coming to mind right now.
In my opinion, the difficulties that come with adoption are most of the time worth going through to ensure that an innocent little life full of potential has the opportunity to be fully supported both financially and emotionally.