The "We Will Adopt Your Baby" poster sign held by anti-abortion advocates is taking over the internet
The picture sparked outraged reactions and hilarious memes from people online, here’s what they had to say
If you’re not familiar with the Roe v. Wade case, let us catch you up to speed. It started in 1969 when a 25-year-old single woman, Norma McCorvey, using the pseudonym "Jane Roe" challenged the criminal abortion laws in Texas. Then, terminating the pregnancy was illegal in the state, except in situations where the mother’s life was in danger. Henry Wade, the district attorney for Dallas County, defended the anti-abortion law. Thus, Roe v. Wade.
Roe was pregnant with her third child when she filed the case but was forced to give birth. In 1973, her appeal made it to the US Supreme Court. Her case was heard alongside that of a 20-year-old Georgia woman, Sandra Bensing, where they both argued that abortion laws in their states contradicted the US Constitution — they infringed on a woman's right to privacy. By a vote of seven to two, the court ruled that governments could not prohibit abortions and that a woman’s right to end a pregnancy is protected by the constitution.
This case led to the creation of the "trimester" system that allows the right to an abortion in the first three months of the pregnancy, some government regulation in the next three, and puts a ban on terminating the pregnancy in the final trimester (except cases where doctors certify that the fetus is putting the woman’s life in danger).
But today, millions of American women have lost fundamental constitutional protection. President Joe Biden condemned the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade on Friday, saying it represented "a realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error."
"With Roe gone, let’s be very clear: the health and life of women in this nation are now at risk," Biden said. "This is an extreme and dangerous path the court is now taking us on." Biden promised in a White House speech to "do everything in my power" to protect abortion rights.
Since it’s up to states to decide whether abortion will remain legal or not, some of them have already decided to do away with it — abortion is now banned in at least seven states. According to The New York Times, "About half of states are expected to allow bans or other limits on the procedure to take effect. In several states, the status of abortion isn’t settled: Courts must determine the fate of existing restrictions, or lawmakers are expected to propose new laws to restrict abortion access. In others, abortion rights are protected by state law, and legislators may move to expand access." You can find a more detailed list of where abortion is prohibited, is likely to be banned, legal for now, and likely to remain protected here.
Even though "We Will Adopt Your Baby" and similar signs have been circulating on social media, their logic is flawed. The "solution" they propose to a problem and the very valid, very real concerns that millions of Americans face now is ignorant. As so many experts and people with experience in these circumstances have pointed out, adoption is not the opposite of (or a solution for) abortion. However, the idea that adoption is a magical cure for unplanned pregnancy and a substitute for abortion is far from new, and anti-abortion activists have been making this argument for decades. But it’s completely wrong.
Anna North, a senior reporter for Vox stated that seeing adoption as a stand-in for abortion "ignores the very real dangers people face when they carry any pregnancy to term. Maternal mortality has been rising in the US for 20 years." These high maternal mortality rates, especially among minority groups, have become a systemic issue and something the nation is not paying enough attention to.
