Summer Reading Contest Winner Week 3: On ‘Sure, Just Have the Baby’

In Pamela Paul’s article, “Sure, Just Have the Baby,” she recounts the difficulties she experienced as a pregnant mother in America, where delivering a baby is 14 times riskier than having an abortion.

There’s a lot I don’t know about the circumstances of my birth. But I do know that I was an unwanted pregnancy. That my 27-year-old birth mother never sought prenatal care — even though it would have been free for her. That she gave birth to me unassisted in a bathroom at home.

But I was lucky. I was adopted by a loving family at five months old.

In Taiwan, my birthplace, abortion has been legal up to 24 weeks gestation since 1985. Procedures happen in doctors’ offices or private clinics. There are no harassing protesters. No stigma.

The article mentions Judge Alito’s comments in the leaked Dobbs draft opinion about the security pregnant women have today knowing that their babies will “find a suitable home” if they choose adoption over abortion. But by most accounts, there are already over 117,000 children available for adoption in government-supported foster homes. Are these the “suitable homes” that Judge Alito has in mind?

I was lucky to be adopted, but Judge Alito is wrong. Adoption is no band-aid for the gaping wound that the absence of Roe’s protection leaves.

Upon my adoption I became a U.S. citizen, where I now have less rights than in my birth land. Every person should have bodily autonomy, no matter their nationality.

I am adopted — and I am pro-choice.