I’m 21 and my girlfriend is 22, and we’re having a baby. She wants to give the baby up for adoption, or get
married and raise the baby together. If I had never gotten her pregnant I think
I would have married her eventually, but right now I’m not ready. I have always
wanted to be a father, and the thought of giving my son up for adoption and never
seeing him again when there is such love between my girlfriend and me seems insane.
I could get a job pretty easily, so how can I even think about throwing away my
son when I know I can provide for him? I know that we were idiots for not being
more careful. She is six weeks along and I don’t know what to do.
Suddenly a Father
Here’s what you should do: Think again about adoption. Doing an adoption doesn’t
mean “throwing away [your] son”–and that’s not some touchy-feely, p.c. line
of crap, either. “Oh, you’re not throwing him away,” goes the social worker,
“you’re making a beautiful gift of him. Now just sign here, here, and here,
and you’ll never see the little bastard again.” No, what I’m talking about is
doing an adoption that would allow you to see your son again–and again, and
again, and again.
“Adoption has changed considerably in the last 15 years,” said Shari Levine,
Executive Director of Open Adoption & Family Services, an agency based in Portland,
Oregon. OA&FS was founded in 1985 by a group of people determined to create
a new adoption model, one that didn’t ask birth parents to disappear, or treat
adopted children like livestock. In an open adoption, the biological parents–you
and the girlfriend–get to choose the family their child is placed with. Then,
working with the couple they’ve selected, the birth parents come to an agreement
about ongoing contact. In other words, you get visitation rights.
“Deciding what to do isn’t just about being ‘able to provide.’ It’s about
being ready to become parents,” said Levine. “He’s savvy enough to admit that
he’s not ready, but committed enough to know that he wants an ongoing relationship
with this child. Through open adoption, you can create a lifelong friendship
with your child’s adoptive parents,” said Levine, “and play a significant role
in your child’s life. And when a birth parent can see that the child is happy
and well cared for, that can help a birth parent work through the grief. There’s
still grieving to do, but it can take six months, or a year–not a lifetime.”
Open adoption isn’t just good for birth parents, it’s good for adopted children
and their adoptive parents, too. “Adopted kids are often haunted by questions,”
said Levine. “Like, ‘Did my birth mother love me?’ ‘Who do I look like?’ ‘Why
was I adopted?’ They may hear that anyone who ‘gives up’ a child didn’t love
that child, or that their mothers must have been drug addicts. What a burden
for a child! In open adoption, children know their birth parents, they know
the truth about why they were adopted, and they know their birth parents love
them.”
For adoptive parents, open adoption not only means access to health and family
history information, “it also means not having to fear the birth parents,” said
Levine. “Adoptive parents are often haunted by fears of ‘real parents’ lurking
out there. If you took some stranger’s child and never looked back, you would
never know if it was okay with her. Having the blessing of the birth parent
can make such a difference.” Levine has two adopted children, and her relationships
with her children’s biological moms has made her feel more like a mom, not less.
“One Mother’s Day,” said Levine, “[one] gave me some flowers and said, ‘You’re
the best mom I know.’ That meant so much to me.”
There has to be a catch, right? Well, there are two. First, while open adoption
isn’t illegal anywhere, open adoption contracts are only legally enforceable
in Oregon, Washington state, and New Mexico. “If you do an open adoption agreement
in Colorado,” warned Levine, and the adoptive parents try and weasel out of
it, “the agreement won’t be enforced by the courts.” Second catch: OA&FS is
currently the only adoption agency in North America doing truly open adoptions.
(Birth parents get to choose from all the couples OA&FS is working with, not
a few selected by a social worker; birth parents are given all the information
the agency has on the couples, including background checks; and couples adopting
through OA&FS must agree to ongoing, lifelong contact, not just a single post-placement
visit). And while OA&FS can work with adoptive couples (and singles) anywhere
in the world–including Canada–they can only work with birth parents who live
in Oregon or Washington state.
Levine couldn’t say it and probably doesn’t want me to say it, but if you
don’t live in Oregon or Washington, well, moving to one of those two states
is an option. When adoptions are challenged in court, the person doing the challenging
is usually the birth father. Since you wouldn’t contest this adoption, the odds
that you’ll wind up in court are small. So, hey, if you and the girlfriend wanna
do an open adoption, move your knocked-up asses to Oregon already.
And now a full-disclosure tap dance: My boyfriend and I adopted our two-year-old
son through OA&FS. I can personally vouch for everything Shari Levine has said,
and encourage anyone who’s thinking about adoption–getting a kid or placing
a kid–to learn more about open adoption. I’ll even go out on a limb and make
a value judgment: The more you learn about open adoption, the clearer it becomes
that closed adoptions are cruel, unfair, and unnecessary.
You can learn more about open adoption and OA&FS by checking out their website,
www.openadopt.com. To learn more about
moving to Oregon, check out www.state.or.us.
I recently got my girlfriend pregnant. We agreed she would have an abortion. I drove her to the clinic and sat in
the waiting room. When she came out, she told me the doctor said she had one of
those rare pregnancies that made it impossible for her to have an abortion without
risk to her life. I’ve never heard of this. Should I be suspicious?
Somewhat Suspicious
“I’ve worked in the field for 25 years and I’ve never heard of a pregnancy
that can’t be terminated,” said Marci Bloom of Aradia Women’s Health Center
in Seattle. So what’s up with your girlfriend? “It sounds like she doesn’t want
to have an abortion,” said Marci. “She’s changed her mind. They should seek
out a counselor immediately.” Reassure your girlfriend that you’re not trying
to change her mind back, and reconcile yourself to fatherhood. “This decision
is ultimately his girlfriend’s to make,” said Marci. “She has the ultimate decision-making
power here.”
Even if your girlfriend’s mind is made up, there are some things you might
wanna hash out with a shrink. For instance, is there something about your behavior
that made her afraid to tell you the truth? And does she want to keep the baby?
Maybe she would consider doing an adoption. If neither of you are ready for
parenthood, you can move to Oregon, do an open adoption, avoid the responsibilities
that come with parenthood (like shit-packed diapers and child-support payments),
and still get to watch your kid grow up.
Here is something fucked up – if the first letter writer’s girlfriend is )was) only six weeks into her pregnancy, there is no way he could know the fetus’s sex… unless they checked fetal DNA, which I highly doubt.
So he is assuming it’s a boy. His son. I’ve heard this before from guys whose girlfriends had abortions. ‘You killed my son!’
It is weird and says something truly creepy about gender and its value in our society. I’m beginning to believe women really *are* just seen as incubators for boys or, at the very least, girls who will grow up to birth boys.
very observant kiki. I did not notice that
It’s also possible that he was just personalizing the pregnancy, showing that he does care?
Now, not to be one of those people who get all up in arms about one of your statements… but I don’t think closed adoption should be blanketed under the phrase “cruel, unfair, and unnecessary.” I was adopted in such an adoption and have a relationship (now that i’m older) with my birth mom and my adoptive family. I know not all biological parents are interested in being involved, in which case an open adoptions is almost pointless, but for those who care but can’t handle facing a family raising their kid, closed could still be better. I’m not saying either is better or right. However, I am saying neither is inherently wrong. I’m so thankful for the way I was raised.
As someone who has exercised her right to choose on more than one occasion & being very interested in preserving that right, I have quite a different take on Somewhat Suspicious’ problem. He & his girlfriend may have gone to an anti-abortion clinic that was posing as a pro-choice clinic. A friend of mine did that in 1990, when we were 22.I didn’t even know she was pregnant,as I hadn’t seen her in months, & when she visited me one day at work, she was 5 mos pregnant & I couldn’t even tell. The place she had gone to stalled her on getting an abortion (I don’t remember how) until she was in her 2nd trimester & then told her it was too late (it wasn’t, but I probably wouldn’t have done it at 5 mos either). She had it & put it up for (open) adoption. However, for any whiny, Bible-beating pro-lifer out there who read this & is thinking, “YAY! Score one for my side!” Umm, no: she drank, like, everyday that she was pregnant & let’s just say, didn’t take care of herself the way an expectant mother should.