South Dakota, baby mart? And technical difficulties
So my parents were here yesterday. It was fine, more or less. They brought a couple of very thoughtful gifts for the kids. For LG, the Playmobil airport waiting lounge, which exactly fit as a play tool to go along with one of the books he's been interested in recently, the quietly heartbreaking picture book Fly Away Home. An easy reader TtFTE book, which Baby Blue promptly claimed as her own. My dad cuddled the kids, we had take-out Shabbat, my mom took an original LG artwork home with her. It was fine.
At one point, my dad was upstairs keeping LG company as he played with all of his (choking-hazard) Playmobil in his room. In his absence, my mom launched into her favorite conversation topic, shopping. I know it is not charitable of me to be bored silly by long accounts of my mother's shopping triumphs and disappointments; I know that she is trying to communicate with the outside world through whatever avenue she can. But it does bore me silly nonetheless. So I did what might be considered unforgivably rude in any other circumstance, and flipped open the computer so that I could skim the news while she talked.
I opened an email or two. There was a request for donations from Planned Parenthood that I couldn't turn down, the times being what they are. I figured I might as well broach the topic with my mom. She's on the mailing list for pretty much every liberal cause in existence, and quite a few conservative ones, too. She's indiscriminate in her generosity.
We talked about the new South Dakota law, and the challenge it may present not just to abortion rights but to birth control as well. "They're trying to bring it back to the 1960s," observed my mom. In the 1960s, my mother lived in Cheese-Curd State, where all forms of birth control, even condoms, were available by prescription only. She said, "I'll never forget when [a co-worker], they were trying to have children, and they found out that her husband had low sperm counts. So they decided to adopt, and two weeks later, they got a baby... that looked just like them. Two weeks! You know why it only took them two weeks to find a baby that looked just like them? Because there were a lot of unwanted babies in Cheese-Curd State back then. That's what they're going to get in South Dakota. A lot of babies up for adoption."
My mother's memory is notoriously fungible and subject to willed or involuntary inaccuracies. But her observations still chilled me a little -- especially after I did a little research myself. I found this statistic from The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
Honestly, just when I think the religious right has done all it possibly can to appropriate the lives and bodies of others in the service of their religious beliefs, I find one more thing that knocks me right out. Is Margaret Atwood our future after all?
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* Among other ad themes, including one set for learning family counselling skills, and one set supporting Hilary Clinton for president!
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Technical difficulties: My power cord is barely functional, and my laptop battery is only slightly better. If one or both of them fail before reinforcements arrive, I may drop suddenly offline for a couple of days. I apologize in advance to everyone to whom I owe comments, email, and any other form of digital communication!
At one point, my dad was upstairs keeping LG company as he played with all of his (choking-hazard) Playmobil in his room. In his absence, my mom launched into her favorite conversation topic, shopping. I know it is not charitable of me to be bored silly by long accounts of my mother's shopping triumphs and disappointments; I know that she is trying to communicate with the outside world through whatever avenue she can. But it does bore me silly nonetheless. So I did what might be considered unforgivably rude in any other circumstance, and flipped open the computer so that I could skim the news while she talked.
I opened an email or two. There was a request for donations from Planned Parenthood that I couldn't turn down, the times being what they are. I figured I might as well broach the topic with my mom. She's on the mailing list for pretty much every liberal cause in existence, and quite a few conservative ones, too. She's indiscriminate in her generosity.
We talked about the new South Dakota law, and the challenge it may present not just to abortion rights but to birth control as well. "They're trying to bring it back to the 1960s," observed my mom. In the 1960s, my mother lived in Cheese-Curd State, where all forms of birth control, even condoms, were available by prescription only. She said, "I'll never forget when [a co-worker], they were trying to have children, and they found out that her husband had low sperm counts. So they decided to adopt, and two weeks later, they got a baby... that looked just like them. Two weeks! You know why it only took them two weeks to find a baby that looked just like them? Because there were a lot of unwanted babies in Cheese-Curd State back then. That's what they're going to get in South Dakota. A lot of babies up for adoption."
My mother's memory is notoriously fungible and subject to willed or involuntary inaccuracies. But her observations still chilled me a little -- especially after I did a little research myself. I found this statistic from The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
A variety of factors, including increased access to contraception, the legalization of abortion and changed social attitudes about unmarried parenting, have caused the number of white infants placed for adoption in the U.S. to decline dramatically. Between 1989 and 1995, 1.7 percent of children born to never-married white women were placed for adoption, compared to 19.3 percent before 1973.I know this is old news to a lot of you, who have been involved in adoption in one way or another. But to little old me, who goggled a bit when I noticed that all of the Google ads on Bitch Ph.D's South Dakota post were from Christian adoption agencies*, this was an eye-opener. Is this what's been going on all this time, and I missed it? The assault against reproductive rights -- is it being driven by a desire to restore the supply of white babies available to market? Because, you know, embryo adoption wasn't getting the job done quick enough?
Honestly, just when I think the religious right has done all it possibly can to appropriate the lives and bodies of others in the service of their religious beliefs, I find one more thing that knocks me right out. Is Margaret Atwood our future after all?
------
* Among other ad themes, including one set for learning family counselling skills, and one set supporting Hilary Clinton for president!
------
Technical difficulties: My power cord is barely functional, and my laptop battery is only slightly better. If one or both of them fail before reinforcements arrive, I may drop suddenly offline for a couple of days. I apologize in advance to everyone to whom I owe comments, email, and any other form of digital communication!
posted by Phantom Scribbler at 12:18 PM 
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