Site Presented By
Tuesday, Nov 24, 2009
The consensus among adoption professionals is that the law has already had a chilling effect. Many birth mothers already have agreed to take out the ads, but others are deciding that it's too much, and are choosing to forgo adoption altogether. Danciu estimates that she's lost 15 clients who came in to arrange adoptions but left when they realized the burdens involved. Instead, she says, fearful mothers are either choosing to keep the child or have an abortion.
It's this alienation from private adoption that has led local antiabortion organizations to line up against the law -- despite the fact that the Florida Catholic Conference was initially one of its biggest proponents. Charlene Hubbard, adoption coordinator at the pro-life Brandon Care Pregnancy Center, says that the number of women who come to the center and agree to put their children up for adoption has dropped more than 25 percent this year. "Once they realize what the laws are and the hoops they have to jump through, then it's too much trouble," she says. "It's a whole lot easier to go to the corner and have an abortion."
Even the Rev. Falwell agrees: "This is a bad law," Falwell said recently on "Hardball." "This will encourage abortion rather than adoption."
Forcing women with unwanted pregnancies to keep their babies very often is a devastating -- or dangerous -- alternative, say some critics of the law. Hubbard recently watched with concern as two mothers in her center made that choice, even though they clearly weren't ready to be parents. "The birth fathers caused an issue and the girls did not want to go through all that hassle," Hubbard says. "They chose to parent because they knew it would be a battle. That's not always the best decision."
The fear that motivated the law -- that pregnant women would hide babies from their biological fathers -- is unfounded, say adoption officials. It rarely, if ever, happens. "It always concerned us if we'd do an adoption and the father came back later," says Danciu. "In 18 years only two fathers have ever come forward because they didn't know the woman was pregnant, but both of them ultimately agreed to the adoption. And I've done over 2,000 adoptions.
"A lot of times the pregnancy is a mistake, a lot of times it's an assault, and sometimes they financially just can't do it," she continues. "But it's not because they are trying to hide a baby from the father: If he was there and offering financial support, they'd be having it."
As an example, Danciu points to the six clients she represents in her lawsuit challenging the statute. Aside from the 12-year-old rape victim, there is a troubled 14-year-old girl who had sex with a number of her classmates. Another woman, a mother in good standing in her community, was slipped the date-rape drug Rohypnol and assaulted by three men; two other women were substance abusers. These weren't exactly women who had been impregnated by responsible fathers; and yet they would still have to recount the mortifying facts of their sexual encounters in public papers -- for their classmates, communities, families and strangers to peruse.
Another purpose of the Florida law is to protect fathers' rights to their biological children, an issue that has dominated the agenda of many men's rights groups. Earlier this month, these groups were up in arms about the case of a Pennsylvania woman who wanted to terminate a pregnancy against her ex-boyfriend's wishes. The boyfriend initially received a preliminary injunction preventing the abortion, but it was later overturned by a higher court.
"[A man] has a large personal stake in a decision in which he is not allowed to take any part," objected Dianna Thompson, executive director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, in Newsday. "His wishes are irrelevant. When it comes to reproduction, in America today women have rights and men merely have responsibilities."
But if the Florida adoption statute was intended to protect men's rights, it's had an unintended effect: The men get the short end of the stick, too. After all, the notices can list, by name, the men involved in the sexual encounters described, even if there is no real evidence that they impregnated the woman who took out the ad. As Melissa observes: "What if they are not the father, and they have that information in the paper? It's not discreet by any means."
And even if a man was interested in locating an elusive mate in order to retrieve his baby, an ad in a city paper many months or years later seems a rather clumsy route to finding her. People move all the time, after all; or simply don't read the papers.
