By Emilie Ng
ABORTION will end when the attitude towards adoption changes, guest speak-er Dr Joanna Howe said at the Cherish Life Queensland fundraising dinner on November 8.
Dr Howe, 30, is a law lecturer at the Uni-versity of Adelaide, and a former NSW Rhodes Scholar.
In her address, Dr Howe said there were three motivations for reforming adoption laws in Australia – abortions, IVF and foster care.
She said women with unwanted pregnancies had two options – abortion or adoption.
She said the notion of abortion being a “woman’s choice” was incorrect because adoption laws were “so terrible in Australia”.
“Abortion is an ‘un-choice’,” she said.
In Australia, there are about 140,000 abortions a year, according to Dr Howe.
“These are children that could be born and given to a loving family,” she said.
In contrast, between 2011 and 2012, there were only 333 adoptions in Australia, and just 55 were local adoptions.
These numbers are devastatingly low considering there were 28,000 children waiting to be adopted, Dr Howe said.
“Adoption was seen as the option if you had a baby out of wedlock, but now legalised abortion is the dominant choice,” she said.
Dr Howe said adoption was also a better option than foster care because it offered permanency for a child.
“The government is developing more resources for foster care rather than getting children in stable, permanent families,” she said.
“Adoption gives a child a permanent family but there are huge negative attitudes towards adoption.”
Dr Howe even suggested a new name to replace adoption might be necessary.
“We need to be smart about how we talk about adoption, perhaps even considering another model or another name,” she said.
She said adoptions needed to go “beyond the pro-life movement” in order to capture the hearts of pro-adoption, pro-choice supporters.
Cherish Life Queensland president Teresa Martin said the pro-life organisation would not close its doors until abortion stopped.
Ms Martin reminded those at the dinner to share God’s love to those fighting against the pro-life movement.
“We must tell those who are pro-abortion, ‘No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, God loves you’,” she said.
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