NJ writes:
Approximately 127,000 people annually adopt children on average in the United States alone; this according to factual statistics. Those are mystery families you speak of
Yet from your source:
119,000
Number of children waiting to be adopted on September 30, 2003.
8.6 years old
Average age of a child waiting to be adopted.
Approximately 3.65 years
Average amount of time a child waits to be adopted.
28,840
Number of children in the U.S. who have been waiting five years or more to be adopted.
As an adopted child myself and having strongly considered adopting a child I have looked at these issues alot. The reality is that if a couple wants a white newborn baby they pay through the nose, get investigated from all angles, etc. etc. If a couple wants a black baby or a native baby (especially an older child for both) they need to show they are breathing human beings and can even get paid to adopt. I know several couples (all fundamentalist Christian, btw, possibly not relevant but who knows...) who paid enormous sums of money to adopt white babies from Russia or other Eastern European countries. It really pisses me off.
True story -When we found out we were going to have a baby, it was when I had just started grad school in Louisiana and we were absolutely flat broke. We found a clinic that advertised "free exams and ultrasounds for pregnant women" and went. As it turns out it was a pro-life sponsered clinic. My wife started hearing a lecture on the horrors of abortion (I was excluded). When she interrupted and said she was not even thinking about abortion and wouldn't adopt out our child we were hustled out of there quicker than snot with only a reference to how much we cost them by wasting their time. Take home message is: despite the evidence for the overall health benefits for both mother and child with good prenatal care the pro-life movement pretty much could care less what happens to a child once the decision to go full term occurs. Pretty much every so-called pro-lifer out there is also against social services, medicaid, family leave act, subsidized daycare, housing assistance, etc. etc. etc. IOW pretty much everything that actually benefits children.
Doctor Bashir: "Of all the stories you told me, which were true and which weren't?"
Elim Garak: "My dear Doctor, they're all true"
Doctor Bashir: "Even the lies?"
Elim Garak: "Especially the lies"
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