85 Days of Life: The Stark Truth About Adoption

As most people who know me know, I am a not so closeted geek.  Being conservative in the geek world is not easy.  Aside from the stray Orson Scott Card it seems that most writers, artists, etc. are generally very liberal – and many of those push their liberal views in their product.  Some issues tend to cross liberal/conservative boundaries though and at the top of that list is the issue of adoption.  And a recent reveal in the comic world will hopefully help that issue.

<SPOILER ALERT>

Whether this will help or have no effect on the issue of adoption recently the popular comic book character Tony Stark, whose alter ego is Iron Man and has been made famous in the cinematic universe by Robert Downey, Jr.), learned he was adopted.

Iron Man #17 … released October 23, 2013 …. revealed a shocking change in the status quo for Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. The second-generation tech-savvy billionaire just got back from a long adventure in space that revealed that his parents had allowed him to be experimented on as an infant by an alien robotic entity to save his life – and install for him a future destiny he couldn’t fight.

In Iron Man #17 we learned that all that wasn’t true, but the truth was even harder: Tony Stark isn’t the son of Howard and Maria Stark as he – and comics fans – always thought. Instead he was adopted by the Starks to use as a decoy to hide away their true son who had been subject to those alien experimentations. In Iron Man #17 Tony put all the pieces together, and actually went out and met the brother he never knew he had—the real son of Howard and Maria Stark – Arno Stark.

The best part was Tony Stark’s reaction finding out he was adopted – “it doesn’t feel any different.”

While hopefully future stories about Iron Man will be inspirational to those who are thinking of adopting or who have adopted we live in the real world and we don’t have to go to fictional venues to find stories of inspiration and love.  The National Council for Adoption’s website not only has moving stories they are also a great resource for those who are thinking of adopting, who are adopted or for those who work in pregnancy care centers.

And going back to my earlier claim of bipartisanship on the issue of adoption you need look no further that the Children in Families First Act.  In the Senate the bill is sponsored by pro-life Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and the not so pro-life Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).  The House bill has the same dynamic when it comes to sponsors.  To learn more about the bill please visit here.

This month happens to be the “official” month for a number of things.  It is National Pizza Month as well as redundantly being National Sausage Month and National American Cheese Month (scandalously there is no “National Pepperoni Month”).  For my wife and her side of the family it is National Polish-American Heritage Month and for my side of the family it is German-American Heritage Month (if we believed in such “hyphenated Americans” nonsense.)

For pro-lifers we can observe many different things related to the movement including National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month, 3D Ultrasound Awareness Month and American Pharmacist Month as well as National Infertility Awareness Month. 

For many in the movement (or me at least) most importantly it is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month.  In celebration LifeNews has printed inspiring stories that are sure to cause some dust in your eyes.  One inspiring story comes via LiveAction and is written about the author’s brother Edward Vincent Ebenhoeh.  The second story is about two High School seniors, Semone Adkins and Travjuan “Bubba” Hunter, with Down’s Syndrome who were just elected Homecoming Queen and King by a student body of about 800.  The article highlights the tremendous obstacles these two kids had to overcome, including just being born:

The couple’s big win came as both a surprise and an affirmation for their parents. The teens have already beaten numerous odds just to come into this world.

McNeil, Adkins’ mom, said that she considered having an abortion when she found out the her daughter had Down syndrome.

“I would have had to have had a partial abortion because I was so far along in the pregnancy and the doctor wouldn’t do it,” McNeil told Today.com. “I thank God he did not let me be able to have that abortion.”

When her baby was born, McNeil confessed that she was afraid to look at her daughter. She said she wasn’t properly educated about Down syndrome. In addition, she nearly died due to complications from the birth.

“I promised God that if he let me live, I would love her and take care of her forever. When I said that, that’s when my blood pressure started coming back up,” McNeil said. “That’s why it was such a big deal for me when Semone won because she really wasn’t supposed to be here.”

Research has found “[a] 2002 literature review of elective abortion rates found that 91–93% of pregnancies in the United Kingdom and Europe with a diagnosis of Down syndrome were terminated.”  In the United Kingdom the rate has been constant at 92% of children diagnosed with Down’s syndrome are killed in the womb.  These statistics match the United States where about 92 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.

As many parents can tell you people with Down’s Syndrome can lead very happy and productive lives.  I would imagine it is harder to raise a child with Down’s than without, however none of the parents I know with a child who has it would ever change their position or ignore the joy that child, and eventually adult, brings to their lives.  When we are a society that decides the killing, or mistreatment, of innocents is okay in a pursuit of perfection or to ease our own lives the quest for flawlessness only makes us as a whole more flawed.  George Will called it correctly when he called it “eugenics by abortion” however it isn’t just those with Down’s we are euthanizing but what makes us human as well.

When the Patient Protect and Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare” passed it included a gimmick that would ensure at least one plan in each state was a pro-life plan.  As the exchanges have gone “live” this month, it has become evident that it is nearly impossible for individuals seeking exchange plans to identify which, if any, plans on their state exchange exclude abortion.  That is why Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced the “Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act” to require prominent, transparent disclosure of abortion coverage for each plan offered on an exchange.

This is vital information since the many plans that include elective abortion are required by law to charge a mandatory abortion surcharge of at least one dollar per month.  Doubtlessly there will be many Americans who would object to paying a surcharge into a fund to be used solely for the purpose of destroying innocent human lives. 

National Right to Life has more:

The Rhode Island Exchange will not even have a federally administered multi-state plan that doesn’t cover elective abortion. ObamaCare requires each Exchange to have at least one federally administered multi-state plan that doesn’t cover elective abortion. But this requirement is phased in and the federal government has until 2017 to implement a multi-state plan in every Exchange. Rhode Island is not among the initial states in which a multi-state plan will operate.

The federal government gave over $82 million to the state of Rhode Island to establish its Exchange. The result? A marketplace exclusively for abortion-covering plans.

As the Exchange plans go online, pro-lifers will have to ferret out which plans in their respective Exchanges do not cover elective abortion.

Twenty-three states have enacted “opt out” laws, in various forms, that will prevent Exchange-participating insurance plans from covering abortions. An up-to-date listing is posted on the NRLC website here.  

Connecticut does not have a pro-life option either.

As timely as ever the incredible Charlotte Lozier Institute put out a paper explaining just how Obamacare is funding abortions (“How Obamacare Will Subsidize Abortion” and more here.)

This does not mean Obamacare doesn’t recognize the unborn.  A keen eyed fan of the March for Life sent the following screen shot from when they tried to register for Obamacare.  The  question asks “How many people in your family? (inculde unborn child(ren) if someone is pregnant.)”

So under Obamacare they recognize that an unborn child should be counted as a person, but also will use your money to help eliminate that person.