Last January, President and Mrs. Bush hosted a jubilant crowd of families with adopted children at the White House. The meeting was part of an ongoing campaign by the President to encourage adoption, a key foundation of his opposition to abortion. But many prolife and profamily groups, though pleased by the President’s efforts, believe the administration could be doing more. At the same time, some are urging the church to get more involved with the issue of adoption.
Bush has proposed adoption legislation focused on children with “special needs,” such as babies born with AIDS, those addicted to drugs, the learning disabled, and kids abandoned in foster homes. One Bush proposal would permit individuals choosing to adopt a child with special needs to deduct up to $3,000 in taxes for court, legal, and social-service review fees incurred in the adoption process.
Another bill provides incentives to federal employees who adopt special-needs children. A four-year demonstration project for federal agencies would reimburse couples up to $2,000 for one adopted special-needs child and $5,000 for more than one. (The average cost of a private-agency adoption is $8,000.)
The National Committee for Adoption (NCA) called the Bush approach “a good first step,” but said the administration should also support a tax credit for everyone who adopts any child through public or private agencies. “There are a lot of people who have a difficult time paying the initial [adoption] fees,” said NCA vice-president Mary Beth Seader. “A tax credit would really help them.”
Tom Glessner, executive director of the prolife Christian Action Council (CAC), agrees. “The tax code has seen improvements, but it’s not profamily in any regard,” he said. “It does not encourage families … to adopt.”
There are one million infertile couples and another one million families and individuals waiting to adopt the 25,000 infants available. According to the NCA, there are 35,000 special-needs children available for adoption in the foster-care system.
What About The Church?
Amidst the discussion, concerns are being raised about Christian attitudes toward adoption, and some are calling on the church to take a more active role. Charmaine Crouse, a policy analyst with the Family Research Council, said Christians are especially suited to help special-needs children. “The way to reach [special-needs] kids is not only through a government program,” she said. “What they really need is God’s love expressed to them through a committed family willing to pray.”
Syndicated columnist Mike McManus has criticized prolife pregnancy centers for not pushing adoption more in counseling. McManus claims that up to 40 percent of pregnant women visiting a crisis pregnancy center, when “properly” counseled about the positive aspects of adoption, would choose that option. Young women, McManus said, need to meet and talk with people who have been adopted and couples who have been waiting for years to adopt.
“The additional degree of happiness and opportunities in life for the [adopted] child compared to [the child] brought up by a single mother is beyond comparison, and yet the Christian community has been scandalously silent,” he said.
Glessner, whose organization sponsors more than 400 pregnancy centers, acknowledges there “may be some validity” to the concern that more women coming through the centers do not choose adoption. He said the CAC is working “to improve the adoption counseling skills” of its counselors. However, he added, “We want to remain neutral on the adoption issue, because we don’t want the woman to feel we’re a threat to her and that we want to take away her baby.”
Social-service workers and profamily activists agree that solutions to current adoption problems will come only through increased efforts by both the government and the private sector, including churches. And as societal trends such as abortion, drug abuse, AIDS, and the breakdown of the family continue to rise, the need for creative adoption programs will become all the more crucial.
By Dede Slingluff.
