Adoption Should be Less Expensive

It took my parents about 3 months and $50 to adopt me.

I was born in 1968 (BEFORE legalized abortion) to a 16-year-old mother that put me up for adoption. It took my parents about 3 months and $50 to adopt me. Fast forward to today.

The average cost of adoption in the U.S. is somewhere between $30,000-$70,000. While costs may vary on an individual basis, families typically spend in this range on the adoption process. Most families wait more than two years.

Needless to say, I changed my parent’s life. My mother, who was devastated by the news she could not have a child, felt hopeless. They applied to adopt a baby and 3 months later they met a social worker in a hotel room. After crying at the top of my lungs all night (this is where my parents may or may not have overdramatized the “crying”) my Daddy told the social worker he wasn’t giving me back. Today my father and mother live with me after my dad had a massive stroke. I wonder who would care for them had I been aborted.

Adoption in America should not be that expensive. Had adoption been that costly in 1968 there is no way they would have me today on an enlisted man’s pay.

I want to make adoption choices easier for a scared young woman facing an unwanted pregnancy. I want to make it possible for her to connect with a vetted family privately in her own home or anywhere she feels most comfortable. Connecting a mother who wants a baby, like my mother wanted a baby, to a scared young woman directly, is a win-win.

Families adopting a baby should be able to cover the medical care of a pregnant mother under their policy. Substantially reducing the cost of adoption. I am so proud of the work Arkansas has done for Pro-Life. What I want to do is give a pregnant woman a choice where she can change the life of a couple for decades to come. Just like my mother did almost 53 years ago.