All Children are Wanted

I have been reading through Randy Alcorn's ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments. It is marvelous, overwhelmingly exhaustive in its research and argumentation. I will try and post some of it from time to time. I read today the common (specious) assumption among prochoicers that "It's unfair to children to bring them into a world where they're not wanted." This immediately brought to mind the painfully tragic story of the woman "too poor" to have another child. From the AP a few weeks ago:

The pregnant woman showed up at the medical center in flip-flops and in tears, after walking there to save bus fare.

Her boyfriend had lost his job, she told her doctor in Oakland, Calif., and now - fearing harder times for her family - she wanted to abort what would have been her fourth child.

"This was a desired pregnancy - she'd been getting prenatal care - but they re-evaluated expenses and decided not to continue," said Dr. Pratima Gupta. "When I was doing the options counseling, she interrupted me halfway through, crying, and said, 'Dr. Gupta, I just walked here for an hour. I'm sure of my decision.'"

Other doctors are hearing similarly wrenching tales. For many Americans, the recession is affecting their most intimate decisions about sex and family planning. Doctors and clinics are reporting that many women are choosing abortions and men are having vasectomies because they cannot afford a child.

This is one of those stories that lingers, haunts. One instantly recognizes that this woman either didn't know all of her options or wasn't brave enough to go through with what would have been right. Alcorn responds to this idea, that an unwanted child should be aborted (p. 139):

One and a half million American families want to adopt, some so badly that the scarcity of adoptable babies is a source of major depression. There is such a demand for babies that a black market has developed where babies have been sold for as much as $35,000. Not just "normal" babies are wanted—many people request babies with Down syndrome, and there have been lists of over a hundred couples waiting to adopt babies with spina bifida.

Would the demand for babies keep up with the supply if abortion were made illegal? The National Committee for Adoption (NCA) maintains that most women would choose to keep their babies, but 11 percent of the children that would have been aborted would instead be given up for adoption. The NCA's president says, "If abortion were totally outlawed, we would guess the numbers to be 68,400 more white infants and 3,960 nonwhite infants needing adoptive homes." Those waiting to adopt would still have to wait in line, but the wait would be shorter and less agonizing.

It's important to clarify that this has no direct bearing on the moral issue of abortion. Even if no one wanted to adopt a baby, it would still not be right to kill Min. The point is simply that if someone does not want a baby, there are others who do.