Movement proposing adoption to abortion picks up speed in Illinois

Nov 24, 2004 / 22:00 pm

The adoption movement doesn’t get much play in the public policy arena and in the press, but Daniel K. Proft, president of the Conservative news service  “Illinois Leader,” is proposing means to change that.

The 32-year-old, who was adopted only nine months before the passage of Roe vs. Wade in 1973, wonders what decision his birth mother would have made had the ruling been made earlier.

“I am fascinated about how tenuous life is, even my own, in a society that over the last thirty years has more and more come to view life as an ‘option’ rather than a sacrosanct gift from God,” he says, grateful of the life of love and sacrifice his adoptive family gave him.

He argues that adoption doesn’t “get the airing it deserves in the public policy arena or the media.” Pro-life groups also fail to use the adoption movement arguments in their advocacy work.

Despite adoption’s low profile, Proft points to a survey that indicates many Americans have a positive view of adoption. The Donaldson Institute and the Dave Thomas Foundation released a survey recently that 40 percent of Americans have considered adoption, and 60 percent have been personally touched by it.

Pro-abortionists, too, avoid the issue of adoption altogether, he points out. “When you strip the “unwanted” label away from those who tolerate the killing of the unborn, what are they left with to justify their position, except their unvarnished selfishness?” he asks.

Proft proposes one strategy that can help raise awareness of adoption – the “Choose Life” license plate initiative, which is seeking to have Secretary of State Jesse White’s Office create specialty “Choose Life” license plates that Illinois residents can buy. A portion of the proceeds is directed to crisis-pregnancy centers and other organizations around Illinois that offer adoption services.

The “Choose Life” license plates originated in Florida about five years ago. Since that time, seven other states have accepted the project.

State Senator Patrick O’Malley (R-Palos Park) has introduced legislation (SB 2425) to create such a plate in Illinois. Barrington businessman Jim Finnegan and his “Choose Life” volunteers are garnering public support for the bill through a petition. More than 15,000 signatures from Illinois citizens in more than 400 different communities have been gathered to date.

For more on the Illinois Choose Life campaign, go to www.ilchoose-life.org, or contact Jim Finnegan at jimpfinn@aol.com