Forgive Me

For my lack of references and forethought but I'm going to blog this topic anyway.*

I've been following Nicole, aka Paragraphein and her experience being censored by the administration of the Bethany Christian Services forums. I've been listening to Nicole for a long time. Like many others, I'd have to say that my ideas of adoption were all positive (that is, I thought adoption was a purely positive thing - a good solution to bad situations) before I started paying attention to what she had to say. Now, my perspective is drastically different. As you know, if you've been reading, I don't really know what I believe about adoption these days. It tears me up.

A long time ago Nicole mentioned something about countries like Holland and Australia have minuscule numbers of domestic voluntary adoptions compared to the U.S. The Captain did some digging around in some Dutch language resources (and here is where my lack of references comes into play) and he found that in Holland, there are approximately 50 in-country adoptions a year. 50 The Dutch adopt internationally, but the kind of domestic voluntary placements we have here are quite uncommon. They do keep track of the numbers, and that's what they are...50.

Why? What's the difference?

Off the top of my head (where this all comes from anyway) I think of a couple of things.

1. State funded (read: crazy taxes on higher wage earners and everyone else) health care.

2. Free birth control pills to women under 21 (the age cap is a new regulation, it used to be for all women, period).

3. The normalized use of birth control for all women (single and married professing Christians not excepted).

4. A silence surrounding abortion - for better or for worse, it's a silent issue.

5. State subsidization of housing for 20-40% of citizens with less than average income.

6. The absence of private schools and homeschooling being against the law leading to greater homogeny in the education system which is one of the best in the world.

Okay, so what am I saying here? (That question is for myself) First of all, women and girls are less likely to get pregnant unintentionally in the first place. They have greater access to birth control and there is less stigmatization in using it. If a woman becomes pregnant and decides to terminate, that option seems to be more easily available to her. If a woman becomes pregnant and decides to carry the baby, issues like health care, access to education and housing for herself and the baby are less of a factor in the decision making process. They may still be factors but I think that they are less.

If we had some of these same systems in America would we see plummeting voluntary placement rates? How many would there be? 50? I wonder.

*And to any of my Dutch family reading, or to the Captain, please feel free to chime in with why you think Dutch women don't voluntarily place their children for adoption as often as American women do, or more accurate statistics if I have misrepresented these.

Comments

[lillian b]

do you think that maybe there are less unwanted pregnancies? is that what you're saying? or that the dutch don't want their children to be adopted by their own countrymen? are you seeing this as a good thing? or a bad thing? i just need more elaboration, but it is intriguing to me.

[Kohana]

I think there are definitely fewer UNPLANNED pregnancies, and therefor fewer unwanted pregnancies. That's my main point, not so much a statement about how the Dutch feel about someone else adopting their child.

I definitely think that having fewer unplanned pregnancies is a good thing. I'm not be into socialism (Holland operates on a primarily socialist system) but I'm all about free access to birth control, and the ability (as much as we are able) to choose whether or not to become pregnant.

[lillian b]

sorry, yes, unplanned. not unwanted. though, actually, there can be some overlap there. esp in the case of abortions.

[lillian b]

wait, i reread. and yes, i see better. disregard my last post. haha!

[Captain]

Here is some supplemental data about adoption/abortion/etc. in Holland (The Netherlands)

- Abortion is a free 'service' (to the user)
- Abortion happens 8 times per 1000 women (compared to 23 in the US) (one of the lowest rates in the world) (30.000 abortions per year)
- 75% of women receiving an abortion cited use of a contraceptive in the 6 months prior to the abortion
- 50% of women receiving an abortion consider themselves native to Holland
- 60% of women receiving an abortion are immigrants (first or second generation)
- over 10% of abortions are performed on women who live abroad (mostly Belgium and Germany)
- http://www.stisan.nl/documents/general/lar.pdf page 49 has an English summary

- 6 babies are born to every 1000 girls (ages 15-19) (up from a decade ago)
- 45% of women between the ages 15-49 use the anti conception pill
- 66% of women aged 20-29 used the anti conception pill
- the condom is used as the only anti conception device by only 5% of the (revlevant?) population
- women over age 21 no longer get free access to the anti conception pill since 2004
- see here for details http://www.rutgersnissogroep.nl/rutgersnisso_groep/rng/digitaal/Factsheets

- 300 domestic adoptions per year (of which 70 were non-stepparent adoptions)
- 1400 adoptions total per year
- vast majority of adoptions is Chinese, female (530)
- reference: http://www.adoptietrefpunt.nl/portaal/modules/soapbox/article.php?articleID=13&page=1

I don't have any clear insights on this very complex issue but I believe the high level of education, coupled with a lack of stigmatization of birth control (in part due to the more secular nature of Dutch society) coupled with the low threshold to obtaining birth control coupled with a more rigid social framework are all compounding factors.

Personally I believe education and the easy access to the pill are some of the largers factors in this dynamic.

While abortion is not very talked-about and not nearly as much of a political issue as it is in the states, the numbers/statistics and reporting on the topic is excellent. It is more in the social context that abortion would be much more of a not-talked-about than in the states.

-Captain

[ycw]

Are you aware that the birth control pill works, as a secondary method, by stopping a fertilized egg by implanting in the uterus? The birth control pill is actually an abortifacient, as are most forms of hormonal birth control.

[Kohana]

HiYWC, thanks for commenting. I tried to email you but it didn't work. I am aware that the pill works as an early abortificient. I am looking at the correlation between availability of birth control and the number of unplanned pregnancies (and the resulting decisions) completely aside from a pro-life/pro-choice discussion. If that's possible...

[ycw]

I cannot see how free access to something which kills children can ever be a good thing. So, I thought since you were all for free birth control, perhaps you were unaware of that.

I am sorry that this turned the discussion away from your main point.

[Louise]

Hi Kohana!

This is an intriguing question. You asked our opinions about whether or not if we had the same type of social services here in the US if our adoption rates would go down.

Although Planned Parenthood might disagree with me I do think that women in the US certainly have fairly strong access to birth control methods, maybe not quite as much as in Europe. But it is certainly much greater/easier access than even 20-30 years ago.

So with what seems to be relatively "easy" access to birth control, why are there are still a good number of women still finding themselves to be in a crisis or unplanned pregnancy? I wonder how many percentage points our unplanned pregnancies would decrease if there were even greater access in the States?

I remember reading about how when women were campaigning for the Pill here in the US the slogan was "no child unwanted," but even now that women have the Pill, along with so many birth control choices, there are still such a high amount of unplanned pregnancies. (And of course, i recognize that just because a pregnancy is unplanned, it does not mean the child is unwanted).

I am not sure what the answers are, but I thank you for posing a thought provoking question!

In a perfect world there would be no need for adoption. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when we started this adoption journey!

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts with us.

PS. One other thought! Aren't *all* birth rates in Europe significantly decreasing overall? I remember reading reports about how the governments there are v. concerned about how decreased fertility/decreased births will impact the future workforce. And this is why they are pretty lenient about certain immigration laws. (An entirely different topic altogether!)

[Nicole]

Interesting.

I was going to ask what the rate of abortions was in the U.S. vs. Netherlands, but Captain already answered that (TY, Captain!).

Just to be clear, we are talking The Netherlands, not just Holland, correct?

Anyway... I think it's interesting that Dutch women have a lower rate of abortions AND a lower rate of voluntarily relinquishing newborns. That's the same situation in South Australia, too. It rather negates the whole pro-life argument that adoption is an alernative to abortion. (Just as the idea of closed records being necessary to reduce abortions seems to be bogus, as abortion rates have stayed similar or actually declined in the few states with open records.)

My guess is the social construct is the biggest factor in keeping voluntary relinquishments so low, coupled with societal attitudes towards pregnancy. (Which are linked of course.... they likely wouldn't have the social construct they do without the attitudes.)

I don't know where that leaves us in the U.S. We're not about to become a socialist country any time soon, for good or bad.

But I do think societal attitudes can be addressed, even without becoming a socialist country. One good place to start is debunking the pro-life arguments that conflate abortion and adoption into one issue. Stats like the ones you and Captain provided here could go a loooong way in the hands of the right lobbyist--and even more so in the media.

[Mike Cutno]

After googling "free birth control netherlands" I came across this blog. I was writing a paper on the need for free birth control in America. I wanted to compare free programs in Europe to illustrate the success they've had with free birth control. Your link to the rutgers nisso groep was very helpful. thanks! great work!