Amy Coney Barrett’s comments urging acceptance of abortion are deemed unrealistic by activists

Comments of US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett regarding abortion alternatives is drawing outrage from activists.

As abortion rights continue to be debated across the country, in early December, Barrett said in early December that women with unintended pregnancies who are not allowed to have abortions are not necessarily forced to raise their children. . Instead, she argued, the mother could give birth to a child and then put that child up for adoption. However, both abortion and adoption activists say things are far from simple.

For those who advocate adoption as an alternative to childbirth, they say the act of having a child is inherently intertwined. When the bond between a mother and a newborn baby, it is certain that the mother will not want to leave the child for adoption.

Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Bartholet said: “It’s ridiculous to say that there’s no point in getting rid of abortion – just putting the kids up for adoption.” “It won’t be an act without emotion. There will be alignment and connection, and the feeling that letting your child go is an unnatural act.”

Abortion activists agree that it is unrealistic to expect mothers to give up unwanted children for adoption. However, they argue that eliminating women’s choice to have an abortion and seeing adoption as the only way to deal with an unwanted pregnancy violates their individual freedom of choice.

“The fight for abortion rights is not our personal stance on abortion or adoption,” said abortion rights activist and US Representative Barbara Lee, a California Democrat. know. “It’s every person’s right to make decisions about their personal health. Your choices about your body, your health and your family are your own.”

Discussion of adoption as an alternative to abortion intensified this month when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks. If the supreme court’s conservative majority supported the law, it could lead to the downfall of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing nationwide abortion rights and allowing conservative states to impose injunctions. extensive ban.

The United States government tracks how many children are adopted from abroad and from abroad, but does not have comprehensive, official data on private adoptions. However, it is clear that only a small fraction of women who have an unplanned pregnancy come to term and then put their baby up for adoption.

In 2014, there were an estimated 18,000 private infant adoptions nationwide, according to the National Council on Adoption, a private organization serving abortion agencies and other parties. That same year, there were 926,190 abortions in the US, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a prominent source of abortion-related statistics.

The Adoption Council is working on a new estimate of infant adoption rates for 2019 and 2020. Its powerful CEO, Ryan Hanlon, predicts the number will be similar to the 2014 estimate. .

Hanlon says there’s a huge gap between the number of U.S. babies being adopted and the hundreds of thousands of Americans — single adults and couples — who want to adopt.

“There are dozens of agencies waiting at each agency for every child they order,” says Hanlon.

Some women who chose to have an abortion because of an unwanted pregnancy say the decision was difficult – but they are also grateful to have had the choice. Among them was Lee, who said she had an abortion in Mexico after a teenage pregnancy.

Many abortion rights advocates are wary of some aspects of private adoption, seeing it as part of the agenda of anti-abortion activists.

Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Pro-Choice Missouri, said anti-abortion centers springing up in many states are part of that system.

“The role of crisis surrogacy centers is to trick people into making the right decision so they choose to give up – choosing a surrogacy and then putting a child up for adoption,” says Schwarz. .

Jeanneane Maxon of the Charlotte Lozier Institute – a former consultant to a network of pregnancy centers – denies that there is systematic coercion. Most women who go to the centers, then carry a full-term pregnancy, choose to raise their children on their own, she said.

It’s often a challenge for employees to discuss adoptions, says Maxon.

“Some women will say, ‘I don’t want to hear about it,'” she said. “My hope is that we can overcome the stigma that adoption is abandoning a child. It’s not – it’s about finding a loving home for the child.”

In the past, unpregnant women in some communities were shunned, or pressured to put their children up for adoption. But even within conservative religious denominations, attitudes have evolved—for example, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Southern Baptist Convention public policy groups have initiatives to help those in need. unborn mothers receive health care, financial support and other services.

“Some pregnant women are afraid to go to church for help – they think they will be judged,” said Kat Talalas, assistant director of communications for life for the bishops’ conference.

“Our goal is to walk with them as sisters,” she said of a recent initiative, Walking with Mothers in Need. “We’re showing them a positive vision of motherhood.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.