"Orphan care"
One criticism of the pro-life movement that truly resonates with me is the impression that people who are pro-life are very eager to take care of fetuses, but not helping once the babies are born.
Apparently the evangalical pro-lifers have taken this criticism to heart, and are in the process of promoting “orphan care”. This is a two-pronged approach, one prong being providing support for foster parents and orphanages, the other being adopting children.
Hm.
I think they’ve missed the mark a bit, frankly.
Don’t get me wrong–I think that helping foster parents and adopting are generally Good Things. I don’t think that having good works be the sole motivation for adoption is a Good Thing, though–one hopes that all people who adopt are adopting because they want children. Alas, I know that some people do adopt as a Good Work, and see it as “saving” a child, with the parenting portion falling by the wayside as a motivator…
That said, the problem I have with many pro-lifers is that the ones who are very vocal tend to be the same people who are very vocal about cutting social programs that might support women who would be forced to carry a child to term under their desired laws.
Taking care of orphans and children needing foster homes is all very well and good, but it shouldn’t be related to “pro-life”. Providing support for women in crisis pregnancies after the child is born would be “pro-life” to me. The need doesn’t vanish after the child is born; a woman who finds a pregnancy as a crisis in her life isn’t going to suddenly be all sunshine and roses once the child is out of her uterus. If it’s economics that is the crisis, it will be even more of a crisis after the child arrives–babies outside the uterus cost a helluva lot more than babies inside the uterus. If it’s social or familial pressures, those pressures don’t disappear.
Too often, “pregnancy crisis centers” are mainly attempts to stop abortion, with adoption being heavily promoted as an alternative. It seems that they help during the pregnancy, but not much afterwards. What I’d like to see is the evangelicals (and other pro-lifers) commit to helping women in crisis pregnancies after the baby is born.
Technorati: Abortion, “Orphan Care”
posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments
