The Atlantic: Giving up a child for adoption more emotionally painful than having an abortion

You’ll pardon us if we use any language in this post that doesn’t match the guidance given by NPR on reporting on abortion; it will take us a while to stop incorrectly calling a fetus a “baby” or “the unborn,” which is “part of the strategy used by anti-abortion groups” Guess from now on women are going to have fetus showers for expectant mothers.

A spate of pro-life legislation has abortion in the headlines, and The Atlantic found an angle to counter the argument that pregnant women should give up their unwanted children for adoption. You see, adoption ends up being more emotionally scarring that just having that fetus terminated and being done with it.

Anti-abortion groups see adoption as a better alternative, but many women seem to find adoption more emotionally distressing than termination, writes @olgakhazan https://t.co/njQiiIuk3S

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) May 20, 2019

“Many” women seem to find adoption more emotionally distressing. And why would that be? Because they realize they’ve brought a new, innocent human life into the world and can’t help but feel connected to it once it “looks” like a human being?

We’re sure “many” women also consider their abortions to have been emotionally scarring, but we’re guessing the article doesn’t get into that.

Olga Khazan writes:

The mothers who did choose adoption ultimately reported that they were happy with their decision. But Sisson says that, at least initially, “adoption can be deeply traumatic. Uniformly, the birth mothers experience grief after placement. It’s a very hard choice and one that a lot of women are not interested in making.”

In the study, several women expressed an unwillingness to part with a baby they had carried to term and given birth to. “I had too many feelings for her to give [her] to someone I barely knew,” one woman said. Some said they would feel guilty placing their children with adoption agencies, and one even imagined the fully-grown child coming back one day and interrogating her about her choice. “By the time they are delivering the child, women feel bonded to their pregnancies and their children,” Sisson told me.

Having the baby causes the mother to realize that it actually is a baby, and naturally she will feel a maternal connection to it after giving birth.

Aborting the baby is an exercise in denial of the baby's humanity. There's an emotional disconnect there, and a hardness of heart.

— John Dias (@TheRealJohnDias) May 20, 2019

Yikes! So it's worse to give the baby up than it is to kill it? WTF

— Hightempest79 (@hightempest79) May 20, 2019

This is the kind of thing that makes me feel gross ever having been pro choice…. Journalist think it's worse to find a baby a happy family then to abort it… It's easier to live with knowing you terminate a life then someone else raising the child

— Dino? (@dinok1975) May 20, 2019

That’s because they’ve been lied to about the procedure and about what it affects. They’ve been told it isn’t a child for far too long.

— Joel_A (@joelapp) May 20, 2019

It makes sense. They're disturbed because through adoption they have to come to terms with the humanity of their child. When aborting they can simply run with the artificial trope that it was never a person anyway.

— Kyle (@N7_Paratrooper) May 20, 2019

Exactly. That’s why we have to call it a fetus now until it’s been delivered.

Amazing that once they realized there was a life inside them and NOT just a fetus, they chose to keep and raise the child. Truly amazing!

— Lance Geiger (@AZGeiger) May 20, 2019