October 9, 2000
EDITORIAL:
'486' adds up to need for adoption
___The Food and Drug Administration's decision to approve the abortion pill RU-486 delivered another lamentable blow to the notion that all human life is sacred.
___Mifepristone, which is known generically as RU-486 and will be marketed as Mifeprex, prompts the lining of the mother's uterus to release the embryonic baby. The pill is taken within the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Then misoprostal, which is taken two days later, causes the uterus to contract much like a miscarriage.
___Unfortunately, RU-486 possesses the potential to expand the parameters of abortion.
___Most immediately, it can increase the availability of abortions far beyond the 2,042 hospitals, doctors' offices and clinics that currently perform abortions. It will empower practically any family doctor or obstetrician to prescribe the two-drug treatment, provided surgical backup is available for emergency procedures.
___Perhaps more importantly, RU-486 threatens to both cloister abortion and diminish the perception of its consequences.
___An RU-486 abortion will require as few as three brief trips to a medical practice, with the second drug even taken at home. This will lower the profile of abortion and make it locally available to many women who currently must take extensive measures to procure an abortion. Furthermore, by reducing the abortion to an unpleasant experience that can take place at home during an afternoon, it reduces the scale of this most-vital action to a minor illness.
___One fears the impact of abortion when it becomes easily available nationwide and is perceived as no worse than "a bad period." The current rate of 1.5 million abortions annually may seem miniscule in comparison.
___Texas Baptists already have spoken vigorously to the issue. In 1996, messengers to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual session approved a resolution decrying "new drugs that will induce spontaneous abortions." In 1980 and 1982, the BGCT ratified resolutions calling for laws "prohibiting abortion except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape and incest." In 1991, messengers passed a resolution opposing "the practice of elective abortion." In 1996, the convention called for public opposition to "any type of abortion as a means of birth control"; in 1997, it condemned partial-birth abortions; and in 1998, it called for laws mandating parental consent before minors can have abortions.
___Now, Texas Baptists must put our money where our ballots have been, in an all-out effort to reduce the number of abortions. We may or may not succeed in judicial and legislative attempts to curtail this tragedy. However, we must make greater efforts to take on complementary tasks that will cut down the number of abortions: We must fund and aggressively promote enhanced crisis-pregnancy counseling and adoption services.
___This year, the BGCT is spending $15,000 for adoptions through Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services. Next year, the amount will increase, but only to $65,000.
___A couple of weekends ago, a scared girl found the number for Buckner's crisis-pregnancy hotline in the Austin Yellow Pages. She called from a run-down motel, where she was giving birth, accompanied only by her best friend. The girl kept telling the Buckner staff member, Carol Demuth, she had to "be home by midnight."
___Demuth quickly contacted Buckner's Austin caseworker, Mindy McMaude, who soon arrived at the girl's motel room. Despite the girl's primary concern of getting home by midnight, McMaude convinced her to take the baby to a hospital to make sure it was all right.
___At the hospital, the girl refused treatment but consented to allow the baby to be checked. While the baby was being examined, the girl left the hospital, apparently more concerned about keeping curfew than keeping her baby. Now, the baby is considered abandoned and in the custody of Child Protective Services.
___Fortunately, it is alive and well, not dead in a dumpster or wrapped in blood-soaked sheets in a run-down motel. And thankfully, the young mother did not realize she was pregnant. A girl more concerned about curfew than her child would have been an easy mark for an abortionist.
___Now, more than ever, Texas Baptists must fund crisis-pregnancy counseling as well as ministries to teen mothers, such as Baptist Child and Family Services' Second Chance program. We also absolutely must fully fund and promote adoption services. Every year, thousands of teenagers get pregnant, and thousands of childless couples long for a baby. If we care about curtailing abortion, helping scared girls and building happy homes, we must provide these services.
___And since we care about spreading the gospel, what better way to do so than by saving babies in Jesus' name?
___ Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
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